Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Southland Equity Partners LLC

Southland Equity Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 591 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after buying an additional 4,126,190 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after buying an additional 890,434 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 926.6% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 733,358 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $369,774,000 after acquiring an additional 661,923 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $700.00 price target (up previously from $680.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $659.88 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $387.10 and a one year high of $663.87. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average of $604.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $561.55.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,215,915.50. The trade was a 2.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 603,032 shares of company stock worth $368,666,614. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.