Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC Reduces Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,397 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 305 shares during the quarter. Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,212,000 after buying an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $3.71 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $433.88. The company had a trading volume of 5,792,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,275,598. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.85 and a 52-week high of $531.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $492.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $406.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $441.54, for a total transaction of $216,354.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,913,722.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,257,291 shares of company stock valued at $612,916,087 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.18.

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.