Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by New Century Financial Group LLC

New Century Financial Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,590 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 559 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of New Century Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,171,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total transaction of $524,990.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,482 shares in the company, valued at $18,262,708.20. This represents a 2.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $647.49 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $385.66 and a 52-week high of $652.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $601.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $560.51.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.