Index Fund Advisors Inc. Sells 468 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Index Fund Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,880 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 468 shares during the period. Index Fund Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares during the period. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,624,000 after buying an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,424,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of META stock opened at $717.51 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.98, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $747.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $674.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $634.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $735.00 to $795.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Loop Capital raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $729.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 118,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 153,184 shares of company stock worth $105,128,004. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.