Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by Equity Investment Corp

Equity Investment Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,591 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 72 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after buying an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after buying an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.7% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,733,731,000 after buying an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $406,316,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $577.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.2 %

META opened at $524.62 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $279.40 and a 12-month high of $544.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $505.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $495.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,054 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.05, for a total transaction of $1,029,156.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 253,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $126,765,650. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,054 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.05, for a total value of $1,029,156.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 253,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $126,765,650. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 357,574 shares of company stock valued at $185,587,773. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.