Cedar Wealth Management LLC Sells 33 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cedar Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,593 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 33 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 0.3% of Cedar Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Cedar Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Napatree Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Napatree Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $782,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,897 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,430 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,594,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blueprint Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 40.6% during the fourth quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,804 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,326,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total transaction of $552,830.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,269,825.75. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $619.55 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $655.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $607.11. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms 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.