Stonehearth Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Stonehearth Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 463 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 57 shares during the quarter. Stonehearth Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $271,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% in the third quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded down $10.75 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $619.45. The stock had a trading volume of 6,455,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,192,659. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $352.05 and a twelve month high of $638.40. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $590.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $550.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.18, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total transaction of $21,695,565.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,744,844.39. This represents a 3.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock valued at $219,037,690. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.