Wellington Shields & Co. LLC Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,037 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 68 shares during the period. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,193,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after buying an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after buying an additional 424,201 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 631,415 shares of company stock worth $414,365,524. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $582.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $656.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $604.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.