Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Lord Abbett & CO. LLC

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 49.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 978,151 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 325,384 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.0% of Lord Abbett & CO. LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $563,767,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $2,990,544,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,462,589,000 after buying an additional 2,225,186 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $1,162,918,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on META shares. Wedbush raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $822.41.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total value of $46,557,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 237,205 shares in the company, valued at $184,059,219.75. This represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 269,243 shares of company stock worth $200,605,051 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of META opened at $785.23 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm's 50-day moving average is $724.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $655.43. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.60%.

Meta Platforms 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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