Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,522 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 92 shares during the period. Bridge Creek Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,819,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,686,000 after acquiring an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $235,872,000 after purchasing an additional 5,594 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 721,339 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $412,606,000 after purchasing an additional 91,773 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $8.50 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $607.36. The stock had a trading volume of 7,449,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,475,807. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $358.61 and a twelve month high of $638.40. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $593.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $553.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total transaction of $21,951,323.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 411,357 shares of company stock worth $249,545,428 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.