Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,981 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 1,355 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,943,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on META. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a "buy" 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 issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $718.55.

Remove Ads

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business'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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. This represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 584,410 shares of company stock valued at $386,031,454 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $1.29 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $575.45. The stock had a trading volume of 14,540,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,241,163. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.04, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The stock's 50 day moving average is $655.23 and its 200 day moving average is $609.90. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's 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.