Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Has $19.95 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 34,076 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,513 shares during the quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $19,952,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $604.90 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The company’s 50-day moving average is $657.51 and its 200 day moving average is $604.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total value of $243,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,927 shares in the company, valued at $10,576,930. This trade represents a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 10,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.54, for a total transaction of $6,075,554.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 653,450 shares of company stock valued at $427,997,036. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on META shares. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.26.

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.