Hanlon Investment Management Inc. Has $1.37 Million Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hanlon Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,336 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 272 shares during the quarter. Hanlon Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,368,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,658,713,000 after buying an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,211,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,892,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $701.38.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $543.57 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $628.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $609.40. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 period last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts expect 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 was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $616.16, for a total value of $22,133,083.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $543.39, for a total value of $500,462.19. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 29,340 shares in the company, valued at $15,943,062.60. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 451,119 shares of company stock worth $304,709,239. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.