Avory & Company LLC Trims Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Avory & Company LLC cut its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,509 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 210 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 4.8% of Avory & Company LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Avory & Company LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $186,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. VeraBank N.A. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. VeraBank N.A. now owns 1,954 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGL Partners LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. LGL Partners LLC now owns 2,834 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,659,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $605.71 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $657.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $601.96. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 725,081 shares of company stock valued at $472,702,625 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.