Voleon Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 48,433 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Voleon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 48,433 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,358,000. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.1% of Voleon Capital Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $655.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $681.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total transaction of $9,035,660.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 210,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $146,918,094.69. This trade represents a 5.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 248,463 shares of company stock valued at $175,403,314. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.9 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $554.44 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $427.11 and a 1-year high of $740.91. 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 $1.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $581.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $604.05.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 previous year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

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.