Mizuho Securities USA LLC Has $120.98 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 45.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 206,615 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,947 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.2% of Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $120,975,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the last quarter. United Bank grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% during the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 723,400 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $414,103,000 after acquiring an additional 16,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Overbrook Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 39.4% during the third quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 27,082 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $15,503,000 after acquiring an additional 7,654 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. 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. Citigroup upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Truist Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ META opened at $596.25 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $655.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $606.39. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one 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. The company has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total value of $545,235.35. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,820 shares in the company, valued at $20,375,535.40. This represents a 2.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total value of $21,712,807.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 622,431 shares of company stock worth $408,968,491 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.