Abacus Wealth Partners LLC Sells 95 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Abacus Wealth Partners LLC lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 490 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. Abacus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares during the last quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 55.9% in the second quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 1,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $819,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares during the last quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.2% in the second quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 90,060 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $45,410,000 after purchasing an additional 5,250 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.2% in the second quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 111,306 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $56,123,000 after purchasing an additional 4,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 22.4% during the second quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,056,000 after buying an additional 384 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on META. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $652.98.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total value of $524,990.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,262,708.20. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. This trade represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 567,111 shares of company stock worth $345,453,784 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $623.50 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $598.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $558.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $382.08 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.