Cynosure Group LLC Has $756,000 Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cynosure Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 44.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,291 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,013 shares during the period. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $625,000. Finally, Atom Investors LP lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 25.9% during the third quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 5,262 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.55.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total value of $252,797.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,101 shares in the company, valued at $10,467,522.10. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total transaction of $21,695,565.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 583,505 shares of company stock worth $385,495,911 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $586.00 on Wednesday. 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 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day moving average is $653.89 and its 200-day moving average is $610.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Sell-side 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

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.