Gen Wealth Partners Inc Reduces Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Gen Wealth Partners Inc cut its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,447 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 189 shares during the period. Gen Wealth Partners Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $847,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,689 shares of company stock worth $109,097,842 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.9 %

META stock opened at $592.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. 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 50 day simple moving average of $568.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $604.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

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.