Ionic Capital Management LLC Sells 600 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ionic Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 33.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Ionic Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 62.7% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 672,367 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $393,678,000 after purchasing an additional 259,152 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,646 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $964,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Junto Capital Management LP boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 23.6% during the 4th quarter. Junto Capital Management LP now owns 70,063 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $41,023,000 after acquiring an additional 13,355 shares in the last quarter. KKM Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 15,431 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,035,000 after acquiring an additional 2,301 shares during the period. Finally, Hyperion Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd now owns 284,343 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $166,486,000 after acquiring an additional 33,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $592.49 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $568.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $604.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research 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 issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,795 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $715.82, for a total transaction of $25,622,776.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares in the company, valued at $19,607,740.16. This represents a 3.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 155,689 shares of company stock valued at $109,097,842 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.