LMR Partners LLP decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 65.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,504 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 48,058 shares during the period. LMR Partners LLP's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $14,933,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in 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. raised its position 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 valued at $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Brueske Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,001,044,000 after buying an additional 1,229,350 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.6%
NASDAQ META traded up $16.60 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $656.03. 18,533,699 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,511,271. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $569.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $605.57. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $442.65 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.43, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.19%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $592.52, for a total value of $545,710.92. Following the sale, the insider now owns 25,656 shares in the company, valued at $15,201,693.12. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 118,992 shares of company stock valued at $82,831,650 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $695.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $624.00 to $676.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $696.45.
Read Our Latest Stock Report 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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