Covenant Partners LLC Lowers Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Covenant Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 11.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,350 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 432 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.6% of Covenant Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Covenant Partners LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total transaction of $643,414.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,607,740.16. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 210,357 shares of company stock valued at $148,449,468 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on META. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

META stock traded up $9.83 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $597.14. The company had a trading volume of 13,134,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,435,039. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $570.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $603.99. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.71 earnings per share. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.19%.

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.