GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. Acquires Shares of 6,311 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 6,311 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $3,695,000. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.5% of GKV Capital Management Co. Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $19,949,512,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $8,344,552,000 after acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,211,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892,509 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $615.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $684.10.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total transaction of $22,515,282.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total transaction of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This trade represents a 6.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 379,901 shares of company stock worth $260,806,516 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $501.48. 14,540,656 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,827,120. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company's 50-day moving average price is $608.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $606.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.