Almanack Investment Partners LLC. Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Almanack Investment Partners LLC. trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,224 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 327 shares during the period. Almanack Investment Partners LLC.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,282,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Financial Insights Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% during the first quarter. Financial Insights Inc. now owns 688 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $397,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 12.5% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 5,891 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,395,000 after purchasing an additional 654 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 144.1% during the 1st quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 12,280 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,078,000 after purchasing an additional 7,249 shares during the last quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5,261.7% during the first quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 543,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $313,259,000 after buying an additional 533,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RBA Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the first quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,141 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,269,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $704.89, for a total transaction of $365,837.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 28,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,839,129.05. This trade represents a 1.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total transaction of $383,081.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 7,853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,818,837.41. This trade represents a 6.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 153,766 shares of company stock valued at $105,135,650 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $713.57 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $651.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $628.50.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.29.

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.