Next Century Growth Investors LLC Sells 1,744 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Next Century Growth Investors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,183 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,744 shares during the quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. RHL Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,170 shares of company stock valued at $24,218,565 over the last quarter. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial raised Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 target price (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $840.60.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $566.98 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $621.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $636.05. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.43 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.63%.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.