New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Sells 3,000 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board cut its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 104,150 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 3,000 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.0% of New Mexico Educational Retirement Board's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $60,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 810,217 shares of company stock worth $523,808,864 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on META. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $11.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $683.62. The company had a trading volume of 15,609,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,750,735. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company's fifty day moving average price is $645.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $589.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.36%.

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.