Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by Insight Holdings Group LLC

Insight Holdings Group LLC lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 27.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 97,240 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 36,890 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 3.7% of Insight Holdings Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Insight Holdings Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $56,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,211,967,000 after buying an additional 1,892,509 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $679.02.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total transaction of $453,012.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 27,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,525,441.26. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 285,289 shares of company stock worth $200,201,352 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of META stock opened at $547.27 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $587.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $604.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $427.11 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS 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 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s 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.