Natixis Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,724,623 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,572 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 1.9% of Natixis Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,009,784,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.7 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $582.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $656.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $604.84.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on META. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 10,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.54, for a total transaction of $6,075,554.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 631,415 shares of company stock worth $414,365,524 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.