Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC Lowers Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 42,810 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 27 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 4.8% of Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $25,065,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 723,400 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $414,103,000 after purchasing an additional 16,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Overbrook Management Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 39.4% during the third quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 27,082 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $15,503,000 after purchasing an additional 7,654 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $596.25 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $655.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $606.39. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 posted $5.33 earnings per share. 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total value of $21,712,807.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. The trade was a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 622,431 shares of company stock valued at $408,968,491 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.