Quantessence Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 17,738 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $10,386,000. Meta Platforms comprises 4.3% of Quantessence Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,658,713,000 after purchasing an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 27.0% during 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 buying an additional 1,892,509 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $610.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $676.55.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.6 %
NASDAQ META traded up $14.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $547.27. The stock had a trading volume of 17,064,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,720,244. The stock has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $590.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $604.75. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.
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. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,366 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $648.68, for a total transaction of $14,508,376.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 580 shares of the company's stock, valued at $376,234.40. This trade represents a 97.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 308,068 shares of company stock valued at $214,968,924. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Company Profile
(
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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