Mendota Financial Group LLC Sells 5,099 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mendota Financial Group LLC reduced its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 97.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 111 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 5,099 shares during the period. Mendota Financial Group LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $64,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $335,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,251,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $664.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Pivotal Research dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $712.69.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META traded down $3.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $708.68. 9,058,172 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,478,847. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $625.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $624.38. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 8,312 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $702.13, for a total transaction of $5,836,104.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 88,372 shares in the company, valued at $62,048,632.36. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total value of $525,577.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,261 shares in the company, valued at $17,268,742.26. This trade represents a 2.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 110,002 shares of company stock worth $73,353,340 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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.