General Partner Inc. Sells 275 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

General Partner Inc. reduced its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,558 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 275 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.3% of General Partner Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. General Partner Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,037,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 835,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $295,901,000 after purchasing an additional 163,067 shares during the period. Voyager Global Management LP grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. Voyager Global Management LP now owns 515,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $182,289,000 after acquiring an additional 140,000 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $36,600,000 after acquiring an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,101,501 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,962,767,000 after acquiring an additional 748,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ERn Financial LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 59.0% during the 1st quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $802,000 after acquiring an additional 613 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total value of $17,101,342.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,034,122.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 308,462 shares of company stock worth $162,308,065. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on META. Citigroup raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. TD Securities boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $563.00 to $630.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $598.08.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $572.81 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $521.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $501.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $583.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.90, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

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.