Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Sold by Loomis Sayles & Co. L P

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,852,279 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 298,803 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 496.7% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 0.31% of Meta Platforms worth $4,597,588,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Blue Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Investment Partners LLC now owns 8,358 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,784,000 after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 71,472 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,914,000 after buying an additional 2,333 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 584,823 shares of company stock worth $386,274,777 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $602.58 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $655.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $607.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

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.