Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 257,875 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 13,934 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 2.0% of Yousif Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $189,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $905.00 to $875.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $820.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total transaction of $6,935,793.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,415 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. The trade was a 82.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $1,590,690.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $5,962,956.64. This trade represents a 21.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 42,074 shares of company stock worth $26,359,548 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $663.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $654.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $706.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The firm’s revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.03 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.28%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.