Alberta Investment Management Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Alberta Investment Management Corp lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 181,584 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 35,300 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.7% of Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $106,319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vista Capital Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 79.9% in the 4th quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,072 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $628,000 after buying an additional 476 shares during the last quarter. Pasadena Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Pasadena Private Wealth LLC now owns 881 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Legacy Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $248,000. Hudson Value Partners LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 79.4% during the 4th quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 1,082 shares during the period. Finally, Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 5,347 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,130,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $657.50 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $648.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $594.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,068,173.34. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 812,422 shares of company stock valued at $525,534,818. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.