By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC decreased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,150,018 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 27,252 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.0% of Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $673,347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $203,000. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $420,000. White Pine Capital LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. White Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,420 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,417,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 33.7% in the fourth quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 615 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.8% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 9,813 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,746,000 after acquiring an additional 2,585 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on META
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms
In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 810,217 shares of company stock valued at $523,808,864 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.3 %
NASDAQ META opened at $694.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $645.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $589.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.05, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued 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 is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.
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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