SJS Investment Consulting Inc. Acquires 28 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,319 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. SJS Investment Consulting Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $772,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third 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 boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,416,908.60. This trade represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 602,612 shares of company stock valued at $368,414,542. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $674.33 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $606.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $562.78. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 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.