L & S Advisors Inc Sells 7,808 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

L & S Advisors Inc cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 20.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,223 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 7,808 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.9% of L & S Advisors Inc's holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. L & S Advisors Inc's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $17,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $718.55.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $547,995.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,649,280. This trade represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 583,505 shares of company stock worth $385,495,911. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $2.66 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $588.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,439,089 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,250,246. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $653.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $610.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 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.