Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 24.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 863,611 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 167,788 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.8% of Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $505,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $459,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC increased its holdings in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.4 %
META traded down $15.33 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $610.98. The stock had a trading volume of 12,592,026 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,819,907. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $656.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $608.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (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 period in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $718.31.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms
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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