Sawyer & Company Inc Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sawyer & Company Inc lowered its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,814 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 352 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.3% of Sawyer & Company Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,120,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 155,776,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,704,616,000 after acquiring an additional 2,841,147 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,542,953 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,410,057,000 after buying an additional 1,548,671 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $7.13 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $495.89. 11,179,784 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,088,033. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $197.90 and a 52-week high of $523.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $459.76 and a 200-day moving average of $373.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Guggenheim upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine 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 stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $496.35.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.47, for a total value of $6,917,281.07. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.47, for a total transaction of $6,917,281.07. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.32, for a total value of $251,526.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,148,086.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,442,145 shares of company stock worth $665,553,088 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 14.03% 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.