Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by Douglas Lane & Associates LLC

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 22.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 134,426 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 37,869 shares during the period. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $65,274,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Madison Wealth Partners Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 1,417 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $502,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the first quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. now owns 1,379 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $670,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Grandview Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the first quarter. Grandview Asset Management LLC now owns 8,549 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,151,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 670 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $237,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 4,895 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,730,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Wedbush lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $494.78 on Monday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $478.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $449.33. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $531.49. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.16 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total transaction of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $268,606.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,067 shares in the company, valued at $16,819,124.11. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,268,235.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 235,757 shares of company stock worth $114,265,610 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.