Lipe & Dalton Lowers Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lipe & Dalton trimmed its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,745 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital City Trust Co. FL boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 6,687 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,915,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 32,632 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $19,106,000 after acquiring an additional 1,685 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Cypress Capital LLC now owns 707 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $414,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Winebrenner Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $1,179,000. Finally, Wealth Management Nebraska purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $386,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were 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 owns 32,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 813,951 shares of company stock valued at $526,565,232 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $668.20 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $653.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $596.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Meta Platforms 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.