GPM Growth Investors Inc. Sells 40 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

GPM Growth Investors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 667 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 40 shares during the period. GPM Growth Investors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 5,400 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,728 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,735,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 24,774 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,769,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Field & Main Bank grew its position in Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 7,676 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,717,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 19.6% during the 4th quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 71,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,158,000 after acquiring an additional 11,640 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $530.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $545.00 price objective (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $0.74 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $431.88. The stock had a trading volume of 10,935,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,335,898. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $229.85 and a one year high of $531.49. 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 50-day moving average price is $493.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $406.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company 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. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,276,482 shares of company stock worth $620,451,095. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.