SCS Capital Management LLC Cuts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

SCS Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 34,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,662 shares during the period. SCS Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $20,292,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 9.5% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. 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 report on Tuesday, April 15th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $679.02.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $547.27 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $587.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $604.44. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $427.11 and a 52 week 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate 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. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,510,470. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 308,068 shares of company stock worth $214,968,924 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.