LM Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• LM Advisors LLC cut its Meta Platforms stake by 29% in the fourth quarter, selling 4,685 shares and leaving it with 11,475 shares worth about $7.6 million.
• Several Meta insiders recently sold shares, including CFO Susan J. Li and insider Curtis J. Mahoney; Meta insiders now own about 13.53% of the company.
• Meta reported strong quarterly results with EPS of $10.44 and revenue of $56.31 billion, and analysts remain broadly positive with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $840.60.

LM Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 29.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,475 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 4,685 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 4.4% of LM Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. LM Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. RHL Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. The trade was a 65.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,170 shares of company stock valued at $24,218,565. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $566.98 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $621.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $636.05.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $6.43 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on META. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $765.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, March 27th. Raymond James Financial raised Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $840.60.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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