Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Purchased by Pensionfund Sabic

Pensionfund Sabic grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 40.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.4% of Pensionfund Sabic’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Pensionfund Sabic’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,075,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% in the third quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,054,400. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total value of $260,008.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,546,130.40. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 326,624 shares of company stock valued at $197,875,975. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Mizuho raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $643.85.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded up $1.61 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $606.24. The company had a trading volume of 2,277,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,505,274. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $589.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $549.56. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $352.05 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

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.