Blue Whale Capital LLP Cuts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Blue Whale Capital LLP lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 44.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 75,677 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 61,452 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 3.3% of Blue Whale Capital LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Blue Whale Capital LLP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $44,310,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on META shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total transaction of $525,577.86. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,261 shares in the company, valued at $17,268,742.26. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 535,725 shares of company stock worth $356,391,449. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 5.1 %

META opened at $504.73 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $648.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $610.77. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.