Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC cut its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 498,701 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 8,643 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 3.1% of Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $291,994,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 255.9% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,001,044,000 after buying an additional 1,229,350 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Guggenheim cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $681.95.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on META
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META stock traded down $17.36 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $537.08. 9,047,780 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,320,713. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.45, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $427.11 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $581.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $604.05.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 248,463 shares of company stock valued at $175,403,314 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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.
Featured Stories
Before you consider Meta Platforms, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Meta Platforms wasn't on the list.
While Meta Platforms currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
If a company's CEO, COO, and CFO were all selling shares of their stock, would you want to know? MarketBeat just compiled its list of the twelve stocks that corporate insiders are abandoning. Complete the form below to see which companies made the list.
Get This Free Report
