Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Acquires 160,575 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,226,027 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 160,575 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 4.9% of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,643,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after buying an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,184,163,000 after buying an additional 400,927 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,977,361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,546 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total value of $6,935,793.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. This trade represents a 82.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,035 shares in the company, valued at $3,570,306. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,959 shares of company stock worth $26,671,107. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Benchmark lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $810.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $915.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 target price on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $819.43.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $673.42 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $673.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $706.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.28%.

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.