Two Sigma Securities LLC lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 80.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,870 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 24,263 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.5% of Two Sigma Securities LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Two Sigma Securities LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,437,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 11.1% during 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, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,001,044,000 after buying an additional 1,229,350 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Citigroup decreased 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, April 14th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $679.02.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on META
Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.6 %
Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $14.12 during trading on Friday, reaching $547.27. The stock had a trading volume of 17,064,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,374,342. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $587.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $604.53. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $427.11 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared 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 a boost 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 0.38%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.78%.
Insider Activity
In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total transaction of $199,626.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at $2,265,707.52. This represents a 8.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,510,470. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 308,068 shares of company stock valued at $214,968,924 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Meta Platforms Profile
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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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