Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Sells 417 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,928 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 417 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.4% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,155,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after buying an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after buying an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark upgraded shares of 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. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price objective (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 631,415 shares of company stock worth $414,365,524. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.7 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $582.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick 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 50-day moving average is $656.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $604.84. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results 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 business posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.