Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 35,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $20,641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,949,512,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,344,552,000 after acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,211,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,892,509 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total value of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 534,820 shares of company stock valued at $355,819,896. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on META shares. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $715.57.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $516.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $1.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $645.27 and a 200-day moving average of $610.47. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 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.