Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.0% of Vanguard Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 7.55% of Meta Platforms worth $111,948,344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on META. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total value of $1,387,085.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 585,605 shares of company stock valued at $386,710,448. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $619.55 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $655.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $607.11. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.