Employees Retirement System of Texas Grows Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 421,520 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 2,229 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.2% of Employees Retirement System of Texas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $246,804,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 535,725 shares of company stock worth $356,391,449. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $504.73 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $648.15 and its 200 day moving average is $610.77. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.10, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Research analysts expect 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 paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.