Louisbourg Investments Inc. Cuts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Louisbourg Investments Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,446 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 1.6% of Louisbourg Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Louisbourg Investments Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $61,000. 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 770,701 shares of company stock valued at $495,357,621 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $935.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $715.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $643.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $587.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

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.