Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,318 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $719.26.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on META
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META traded down $11.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $683.62. 15,609,265 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,022,064. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $647.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $590.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.36%.
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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