Smith Salley Wealth Management Has $47.44 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Smith Salley Wealth Management raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 81,015 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,233 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 3.0% of Smith Salley Wealth Management's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Smith Salley Wealth Management's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $47,435,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 495,269 shares of company stock worth $300,888,396. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $651.27.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ META traded up $3.69 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $616.46. 11,584,932 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,100,104. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $597.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $557.77. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $381.16 and a 1-year high of $638.40. The company has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 currently 9.42%.

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.