Skylands Capital LLC Decreases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Skylands Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 22.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,495 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 2,490 shares during the period. Skylands Capital LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,896,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Fjell Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $1,836,000. Opulen Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $325,000. Brighton Jones LLC grew 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 buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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. Finally, SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,397 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,989,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total value of $382,503.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,626 shares in the company, valued at $20,360,362. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 154,285 shares of company stock worth $105,518,153. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META traded up $3.34 on Friday, hitting $716.91. The stock had a trading volume of 8,601,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,572,054. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $658.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $629.81. 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 has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $442.65 and a 52-week high of $747.90.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $664.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 price objective (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $719.29.

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.