Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.

Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. decreased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 239,018 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 5,003 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.5% of Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $157,773,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is expanding its AI infrastructure globally, including a new AI-enabled data center partnership in India with Reliance Industries, reinforcing confidence in its long-term artificial intelligence strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company launched Instagram Plus globally, an optional subscription product that could help diversify revenue beyond advertising.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentary from Morgan Stanley, Zacks, and others continued to describe Meta as a high-quality growth and compounder stock, with recent earnings still viewed as strong.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Raymond James Financial upgraded Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 10th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush upgraded Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. This trade represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. The trade was a 20.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,305 shares of company stock worth $25,567,928. Corporate insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $566.98 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $621.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $635.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $6.43 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.