Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Holdings Trimmed by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,406,937 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 246,950 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 0.9% of AQR Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Meta Platforms worth $1,038,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,875 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $4,190,037.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,857,980.20. This represents a 7.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total transaction of $365,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,476,894.45. The trade was a 7.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 41,959 shares of company stock worth $26,578,191. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Arete Research set a $718.00 target price on Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $1,117.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price objective on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $819.46.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $644.23 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $665.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $706.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.28%.

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.