Virtu Financial LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 210.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,143 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 22,471 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.0% of Virtu Financial LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Virtu Financial LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $19,405,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $59,000. 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. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reissued a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $718.31.
View Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Meta Platforms stock traded down $8.40 on Thursday, hitting $602.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,412,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,822,863. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $656.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $608.02. The firm has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.
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 for the quarter, beating 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. 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 0.35%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were 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. Insiders sold 586,213 shares of company stock worth $387,084,349 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company 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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