Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by River Global Investors LLP

River Global Investors LLP decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 42.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,408 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 10,585 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.6% of River Global Investors LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. River Global Investors LLP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $8,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on META shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $619.56 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $658.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $602.08. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase 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 yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,035 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.63, for a total value of $13,631,512.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total value of $370,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 8,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,904,886. This represents a 7.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 725,689 shares of company stock valued at $473,072,897. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.