Haverford Trust Co lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,174 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 1,009 shares during the quarter. Haverford Trust Co's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,615,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,885,000. Finally, KKM Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.1% during the third quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $7,516,000 after purchasing an additional 988 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms
In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 584,823 shares of company stock valued at $386,274,777. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $718.31.
View Our Latest Analysis on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Price Performance
NASDAQ:META traded down $21.71 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $580.87. 8,123,490 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,206,373. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $655.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $607.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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.
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