Guggenheim Capital LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Guggenheim Capital LLC lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 356,141 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 116,721 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.7% of Guggenheim Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Guggenheim Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $208,524,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Carroll Investors Inc increased its position in Meta Platforms by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. Carroll Investors Inc now owns 2,285 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,343,000 after buying an additional 591 shares during the period. Rossby Financial LCC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $860,000. Chiron Investment Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 75.7% during the fourth quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 14,324 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,387,000 after acquiring an additional 6,170 shares during the period. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $174,279,000. Finally, Dagco Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. Dagco Inc. now owns 935 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $692.93.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of META opened at $531.48 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $624.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $609.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.85, for a total value of $22,050,105.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 450,214 shares of company stock worth $304,162,130 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.