Aspiriant LLC Sells 716 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aspiriant LLC trimmed its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,337 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 716 shares during the quarter. Aspiriant LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,365,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,126,190 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $520,662,000 after acquiring an additional 890,434 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 926.6% during the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 733,358 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $369,774,000 after purchasing an additional 661,923 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $636.45 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $385.66 and a 1 year high of $638.40. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $600.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $559.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

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.