Park National Corp OH Buys 572 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Park National Corp OH boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the quarter. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Sterneck Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Sterneck Capital Management LLC now owns 7,391 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,327,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 215.6% during the fourth quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 4,649 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,722,000 after acquiring an additional 3,176 shares during the period. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,672,000. Norway Savings Bank increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 3,826 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,240,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Birch Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $94,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This trade represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock valued at $219,037,690. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $617.89 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $591.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $551.33. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $352.05 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on META. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.80.

About Meta Platforms

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.