Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lowered its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 127,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 7,643 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.8% of Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $74,363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after buying an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.5% in the third quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,704,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 285,289 shares of company stock valued at $200,201,352. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $547.27 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $587.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $604.68. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $427.11 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 period last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. This is an increase 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%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Benchmark cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $679.02.

About Meta Platforms

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.