PGGM Investments Acquires 38,485 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

PGGM Investments lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 36.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 144,137 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 38,485 shares during the quarter. PGGM Investments’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $51,019,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on META shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 in the last 90 days. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $1.91 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $443.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 32,645,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,233,678. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $494.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $404.27. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.85 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.