TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Acquires 2,768 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 197,650 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,768 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.9% of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $115,732,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after buying an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $23,606,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141,355 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,344,552,000 after acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This trade represents a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $531.22, for a total transaction of $489,253.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 28,419 shares in the company, valued at $15,096,741.18. This trade represents a 3.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 379,901 shares of company stock worth $260,806,516. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Two equities research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $684.10.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $501.48 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $608.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $607.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.