Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P Sells 1,523 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 15,357 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,523 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.2% of Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. DnB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 1,554,033 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $909,902,000 after buying an additional 42,509 shares in the last quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 45,451 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,553 shares during the last quarter. NBZ Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $303,000. Vertex Planning Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 1,012 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 103,435 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $60,562,000 after purchasing an additional 8,861 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This trade represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $576.74 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $655.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $608.48. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.