Associated Banc Corp Has $45.52 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Associated Banc Corp lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 77,740 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,083 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.4% of Associated Banc Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Associated Banc Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $45,518,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank raised its position in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Connable Office Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the third quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 5,655 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,237,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.8% in the third quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 119,583 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $68,454,000 after acquiring an additional 7,628 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.7 %

META opened at $582.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $656.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $604.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 631,415 shares of company stock valued at $414,365,524 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.