Senator Investment Group LP increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 95,216 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 7,695 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.6% of Senator Investment Group LP's holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Senator Investment Group LP's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $55,750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,633,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $624.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Two research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $676.55.
View Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the 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 $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 342,662 shares of company stock worth $237,476,709. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
META stock traded up $20.51 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $520.79. 18,129,972 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,806,017. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $594.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $605.11. 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 has a market cap of $1.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.
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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