South Street Advisors LLC Sells 802 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

South Street Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 27,334 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 802 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.5% of South Street Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. South Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Custos Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,000. PDS Planning Inc grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 9,950 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,826,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 6,975 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,084,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,837 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,931,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RD Lewis Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on META. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total transaction of $243,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,576,930. The trade was a 2.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total value of $21,712,807.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 622,844 shares of company stock valued at $409,212,161. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $586.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $655.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $604.56.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio 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.