Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 1.3% of Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $79,212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton raised its position in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keel Point LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the third quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,008,000 after buying an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at $13,585,110. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at $13,585,110. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,392,501 shares of company stock worth $666,506,318. Insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.1 %

Meta Platforms stock traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $481.73. The company had a trading volume of 17,232,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,160,061. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.33, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $207.13 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $494.81 and a 200 day moving average of $401.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.28.

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.