WBI Investments LLC Sells 849 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

WBI Investments LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 60.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 548 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 849 shares during the quarter. WBI Investments LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $321,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $665.75, for a total value of $613,155.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,212,039.50. This represents a 2.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 98,837 shares of company stock worth $64,758,661. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $752.00 to $664.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Pivotal Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $701.05.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $640.43 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $571.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $607.61. 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 company has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $442.65 and a 12-month high of $740.91.

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

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.