Alliancebernstein L.P. trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,041,488 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 257,638 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 3.0% of Alliancebernstein L.P.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.59% of Meta Platforms worth $8,806,942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,949,512,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in 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 period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings 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 valued at $5,211,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892,509 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $725.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $770.00 target price (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $718.55.
View Our Latest Report on META
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were 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. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 583,505 shares of company stock worth $385,495,911. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $9.64 on Tuesday, hitting $586.00. 12,803,334 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,260,186. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $654.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $610.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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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