Voya Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,512,127 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 617,361 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.1% of Voya Investment Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Voya Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.14% of Meta Platforms worth $2,055,854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $676.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm's 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 $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 343,068 shares of company stock worth $237,676,335. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $520.79 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.32 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The business's fifty day moving average is $594.44 and its 200-day moving average is $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. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 posted $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.

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