Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,425 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $2,006,000.
A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the 4th 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 period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,262,991 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,824,934,000 after purchasing an additional 795,570 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms
In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total value of $1,387,085.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $770.00 price target (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, 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 Stock Up 0.8 %
META traded up $5.12 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $623.97. 10,397,670 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,810,173. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $655.60 and a 200 day moving average of $607.11.
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, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 period last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.
Meta Platforms Profile
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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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