Hilltop National Bank Has $2.45 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hilltop National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,178 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the quarter. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $646.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock traded up $4.74 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $615.46. 7,375,008 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,297,995. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $358.61 and a 52 week high of $638.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $592.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $552.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total value of $239,808.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,456,828. This represents a 3.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total transaction of $21,951,323.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 410,536 shares of company stock valued at $249,024,275. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.