Sarasin & Partners LLP Has $370.61 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sarasin & Partners LLP trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 19.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 643,015 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 153,198 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 3.9% of Sarasin & Partners LLP's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Sarasin & Partners LLP's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $370,608,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 53.6% during the first quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 86 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total value of $199,626.14. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at $2,265,707.52. The trade was a 8.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total value of $552,830.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,103 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,269,825.75. This represents a 2.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,682 shares of company stock valued at $56,014,018 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of META stock traded down $1.88 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $692.26. 3,754,666 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,480,069. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $597.08 and a 200 day moving average of $617.62. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.94, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research 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 research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $702.48.

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.