Cinctive Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 9,184 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 9,184 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,377,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,519 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $19,949,512,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after purchasing an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 1,892,509 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $563.03, for a total transaction of $342,322.24. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,507,676.90. This trade represents a 8.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 584,113 shares of company stock valued at $385,838,234. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of META opened at $583.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $653.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $610.50. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 in the previous year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms 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.