Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Decreases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,852,279 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 298,803 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 496.7% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P's holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned 0.31% of Meta Platforms worth $4,597,588,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $25.84 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $576.74. The company had a trading volume of 17,561,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,238,405. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $655.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $609.21. The company has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several research reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $718.31.

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.