Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is Kennon Green & Company LLC’s 2nd Largest Position

Kennon Green & Company LLC reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,835 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 791 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 7.9% of Kennon Green & Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Kennon Green & Company LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Naviter Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 5,933 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,100,000 after purchasing an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Bluesphere Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Bluesphere Advisors LLC now owns 997 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 652.8% in the fourth quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 18,851 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,672,000 after acquiring an additional 16,347 shares in the last quarter. Avaii Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Avaii Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,615 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,280,000 after buying an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 83.2% in the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 19,999 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,079,000 after buying an additional 9,081 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $13.55 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $429.74. 16,378,259 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,360,781. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $494.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $405.39. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $229.85 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $3,803,278.08. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock worth $620,679,759 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.