Polar Capital Holdings Plc Has $880.42 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Polar Capital Holdings Plc raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,503,673 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 58,805 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 4.9% of Polar Capital Holdings Plc's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Polar Capital Holdings Plc owned 0.06% of Meta Platforms worth $880,416,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,658,713,000 after purchasing an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,211,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892,509 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $701.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 81,171 shares of company stock valued at $55,161,016 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $3.54 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $640.34. The stock had a trading volume of 18,351,566 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,531,362. The company has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $571.37 and a 200 day moving average of $606.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.