Jasper Ridge Partners L.P. Reduces Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Jasper Ridge Partners L.P. reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 29.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,610 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,392 shares during the quarter. Jasper Ridge Partners L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $19,949,512,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $624.00 to $676.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $592.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.77, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $568.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $604.50.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $592.52, for a total transaction of $545,710.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 25,656 shares in the company, valued at $15,201,693.12. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total value of $199,626.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at $2,265,707.52. This represents a 8.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 155,689 shares of company stock valued at $109,097,842 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.