Sterling Capital Management LLC Acquires 3,539 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 114,192 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 3,539 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.9% of Sterling Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Sterling Capital Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $66,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third 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. lifted its holdings in 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 worth $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its position in shares of 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 worth $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

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Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $543.39, for a total value of $500,462.19. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,340 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,943,062.60. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 451,119 shares of company stock worth $304,709,239. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on META shares. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $610.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $692.93.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of META stock traded down $12.09 on Monday, hitting $531.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,042,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,773,770. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $628.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $609.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (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 earned $5.33 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. 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 dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.