Olstein Capital Management L.P. Sells 600 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,600 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Olstein Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on META shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $674.33 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $682.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $606.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $562.78. The firm has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total transaction of $234,410.54. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,842,668.52. The trade was a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock worth $368,414,542. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.