Madrona Financial Services LLC Sells 129 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Madrona Financial Services LLC decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 896 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 129 shares during the period. Madrona Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Capital Planning Advisors LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital Planning Advisors LLC now owns 12,968 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,593,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Point Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Cedar Point Capital Partners LLC now owns 736 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $431,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Edge Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Edge Financial Advisors LLC now owns 478 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $280,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,938 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,720,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $293,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on META. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities 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. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $647.49 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $385.66 and a 52 week high of $652.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $601.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $560.51. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

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.