Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 370,996 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,917 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $131,318,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 29,451 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,424,000 after purchasing an additional 2,637 shares during the last quarter. WestHill Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $248,000. Peterson Wealth Services boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Peterson Wealth Services now owns 960 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. ESG Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. ESG Planning now owns 2,487 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $880,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 6,307 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,232,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total value of $217,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total transaction of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 35,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META traded up $14.12 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $508.29. The company had a trading volume of 7,073,720 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,944,693. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $207.13 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The company has a market cap of $1.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day moving average of $493.65 and a 200-day moving average of $396.70.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

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.