Fmr LLC Has $79.78 Billion Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Fmr LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 136,254,148 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,014,584 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 4.8% of Fmr LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Fmr LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Meta Platforms worth $79,778,166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of META stock opened at $504.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $648.15 and a 200-day moving average of $610.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase 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 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total value of $525,577.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,268,742.26. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms 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 completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 549,113 shares of company stock valued at $364,668,246 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.55.

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.