Phoenix Financial Ltd. Has $97.21 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Phoenix Financial Ltd. reduced its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 25.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 166,019 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 55,847 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.3% of Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $97,210,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $790.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $698.40.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:META traded down $9.58 on Monday, reaching $533.99. The stock had a trading volume of 6,530,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,746,007. The stock has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50-day moving average of $628.35 and a 200 day moving average of $609.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total value of $22,133,083.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 451,119 shares of company stock valued at $304,709,239 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.