Northern Trust Corp Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 1.9% of Northern Trust Corp's portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Northern Trust Corp owned about 0.93% of Meta Platforms worth $13,727,613,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,633,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $9,704,000 after buying an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms 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 $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total transaction of $13,554,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 248,463 shares of company stock worth $175,403,314 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $628.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $681.95.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.0 %

Meta Platforms stock traded down $5.44 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $549.00. The company had a trading volume of 27,728,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,382,210. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $427.11 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's fifty day moving average is $581.11 and its 200-day moving average is $604.05.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase 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 0.38%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

About Meta Platforms

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.