Northern Trust Corp Has $13.73 Billion Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.9% of Northern Trust Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Northern Trust Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $13,727,613,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,731,078 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,013,590,000 after acquiring an additional 55,345 shares during the last quarter. III Capital Management raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 114.8% in the fourth quarter. III Capital Management now owns 8,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,684,000 after buying an additional 4,276 shares in the last quarter. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,226,860 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $718,339,000 after buying an additional 17,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 159.6% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 553 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on META. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $679.02.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $547.27 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $427.11 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $587.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $604.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total value of $453,012.27. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,525,441.26. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 285,289 shares of company stock worth $200,201,352. 13.71% of the stock is 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.