T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 18.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,045,430 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 463,647 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.7% of T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,197,620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Seelaus Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Maiden Cove Capital LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Consulting LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $624.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $680.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $681.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $531.22, for a total value of $489,253.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 28,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,096,741.18. This trade represents a 3.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 342,662 shares of company stock worth $237,476,709 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $500.28 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $598.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $605.69.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.