Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC Trims Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC cut its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 16.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,249 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 1,467 shares during the period. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares in the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,624,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,972 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $6,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 152,263 shares of company stock worth $104,638,750. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META traded down $7.73 on Wednesday, hitting $702.66. 10,094,211 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,418,344. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $679.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $635.93. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $747.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $700.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $732.67.

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.