German American Bancorp Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

German American Bancorp Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.3% of German American Bancorp Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. German American Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $21,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Peachtree Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Peachtree Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,981 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,160,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 146.1% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,775,909 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,039,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,307 shares in the last quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 2,627 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,538,000 after buying an additional 676 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 320,764 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $187,811,000 after acquiring an additional 31,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, U S Wealth Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,129,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total value of $21,951,323.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total value of $525,577.86. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,268,742.26. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 534,820 shares of company stock worth $355,819,896 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $516.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $645.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $610.47. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $715.57.

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.