Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Purchased by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,805 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.7% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,733,182 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $4,223,148,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after acquiring an additional 946,871 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded down $20.73 during trading on Friday, hitting $481.07. The company had a trading volume of 25,215,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,967,675. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $494.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $398.64. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.