Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 319,509 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,491 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $113,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,182 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,143,462 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,945,799,000 after acquiring an additional 111,735 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $545.00 price target (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 34,398 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.52, for a total value of $15,737,772.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,276,482 shares of company stock valued at $620,451,095 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ META traded up $3.30 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $435.92. The company had a trading volume of 7,182,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,289,979. The company’s fifty day moving average is $493.66 and its 200-day moving average is $406.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $229.85 and a one year high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $1.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.