Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 46.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,014 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 889 shares during the quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Kaizen Financial Strategies increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57.8% in the 4th quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 1,599 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Well Done LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 1,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. HT Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. HT Partners LLC now owns 1,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $634,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Altfest L J & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 30.7% during the 4th quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 8,806 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,117,000 after buying an additional 2,071 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $527.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of META traded down $4.74 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $489.12. 9,126,516 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,803,041. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $202.54 and a 52-week high of $523.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $464.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $375.30. The firm has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.