Axecap Investments LLC Sells 4,430 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Axecap Investments LLC trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 89.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 520 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,430 shares during the quarter. Axecap Investments LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $305,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Seelaus Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,569,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 751,033 shares of company stock valued at $480,911,671 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.1 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $736.67 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $638.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $584.28. The company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.80, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 posted $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.

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.