Allred Capital Management LLC Has $2.15 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Allred Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,671 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Allred Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,150,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,704,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on META shares. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Barclays increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $684.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total transaction of $22,515,282.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $255,234.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,057,950. The trade was a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 379,901 shares of company stock valued at $260,806,516. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

META stock opened at $501.48 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $612.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $607.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.