Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV Acquires Shares of 2,028 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,028 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $718,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $55,011,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,223,148,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after acquiring an additional 946,871 shares in 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, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.89, for a total transaction of $6,188,498.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,776 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.89, for a total transaction of $6,188,498.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,495,983 shares of company stock worth $705,134,392. Corporate insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on META shares. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $527.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $440.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $499.38.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $527.34 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $480.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $385.49. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $530.70. The company has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.39, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.00 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.