Biltmore Family Office LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Biltmore Family Office LLC lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,025 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 24 shares during the period. Biltmore Family Office LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Disciplined Investors L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $293,000. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 11,646 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,819,000 after acquiring an additional 483 shares during the period. OneAscent Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 39.3% in the 4th quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 2,386 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,397,000 after acquiring an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Cinctive Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $5,377,000. Finally, Bryce Point Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $507,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on META shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.55.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total transaction of $21,695,565.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total transaction of $252,797.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,101 shares in the company, valued at $10,467,522.10. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 584,113 shares of company stock worth $385,838,234 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of META stock opened at $583.93 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $653.10 and a 200 day moving average of $610.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current 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. 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 dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

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.