Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Holdings Lessened by Fred Alger Management LLC

Fred Alger Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,864,884 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 36,189 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 5.2% of Fred Alger Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Fred Alger Management LLC owned 0.07% of Meta Platforms worth $1,091,908,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. FWL Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 65.6% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 159 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Circle Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,562 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,283,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 235,392 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $137,824,000 after buying an additional 12,972 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Derivatives LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 50.6% in the 4th quarter. Clear Street Derivatives LLC now owns 127,578 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $74,698,000 after buying an additional 42,878 shares during the period. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 64.8% in the fourth quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 2,525 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,478,000 after acquiring an additional 993 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 210,357 shares of company stock worth $148,449,468 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $597.14 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $570.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $603.99. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The business’s revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis 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 was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.19%.

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.