Senator Investment Group LP Grows Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Senator Investment Group LP raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 95,216 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 7,695 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.6% of Senator Investment Group LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Senator Investment Group LP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $55,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $680.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $684.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $501.48 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $608.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $607.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91.

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 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $531.22, for a total transaction of $489,253.62. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 28,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,096,741.18. The trade was a 3.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 379,901 shares of company stock worth $260,806,516. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.