Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 11,851 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 11,851 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,195,000. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.7% of Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on META shares. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $545.00 price objective (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $1.91 during trading on Friday, reaching $443.29. The stock had a trading volume of 32,645,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,233,678. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.68. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $229.85 and a one year high of $531.49. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $494.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $404.85.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.