Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is Jones Road Capital Management L.P.’s 2nd Largest Position

Jones Road Capital Management L.P. lessened its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 34,780 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,800 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 9.9% of Jones Road Capital Management L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Jones Road Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $20,364,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,460 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $17,437,000 after acquiring an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.2% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 519,872 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $297,596,000 after purchasing an additional 21,189 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on META. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $713.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.41, for a total transaction of $7,984,944.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 381,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,649,678.90. This represents a 3.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 498,899 shares of company stock valued at $333,868,573 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $510.45 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $638.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $609.42.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.