Metis Global Partners LLC Acquires 13,962 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 138,911 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 13,962 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.3% of Metis Global Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $80,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,462,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,162,918,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 11.3%

META stock opened at $773.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $450.80 and a one year high of $784.75. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $699.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $644.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 40.31%. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,928,955.27. The trade was a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $811.31.

Meta Platforms 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.