Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Sells 4,811 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 25.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 14,214 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,811 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,031,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. STAR Financial Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $505,000. Northern Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $222,000. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $227,000. Copperwynd Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 7,778 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,753,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 32,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $11,508,000 after purchasing an additional 11,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.13, for a total value of $16,097,017.09. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 31,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.13, for a total value of $16,097,017.09. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $431.05, for a total transaction of $252,164.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,794,965.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 635,968 shares of company stock valued at $313,346,759. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.41.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ:META traded up $10.88 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $487.87. The stock had a trading volume of 8,199,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,023,439. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $258.88 and a one year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.68. The company has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50 day moving average is $480.18 and its 200-day moving average is $433.84.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.