Ninety One North America Inc. Reduces Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ninety One North America Inc. lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 21,949 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,200 shares during the period. Ninety One North America Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.5% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,244,201 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $499,020,000 after purchasing an additional 249,926 shares during the period. Ergoteles LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 284.0% in the first quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 3,356 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $746,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482 shares during the period. First Western Trust Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $813,000. Finally, Oxford Financial Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.9% in the first quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. now owns 1,888 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $420,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Raymond James boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META traded up $11.02 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $505.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,879,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,977,816. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $207.13 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market cap of $1.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $493.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $396.70.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,440,278 shares of company stock valued at $684,796,490 in the last ninety days. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Company 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.