Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 27,270 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 464 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.3% of Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $748.60.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of META stock traded down $8.16 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $704.81. 8,873,115 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,295,060. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $686.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $638.61. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $747.90. The company has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.50, for a total value of $370,947.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 6,819 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,892,632.50. The trade was a 7.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 152,437 shares of company stock valued at $105,068,570. Company insiders own 13.61% 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.