Boothbay Fund Management LLC Trims Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Boothbay Fund Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,194 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 906 shares during the quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,658,713,000 after buying an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,211,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,892,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.59, for a total value of $259,194.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,862 shares in the company, valued at $9,954,832.58. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 308,068 shares of company stock worth $214,968,924 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.6 %

META opened at $547.27 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $427.11 and a 12-month high of $740.91. 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 has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $587.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $604.44.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $679.02.

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.