WINTON GROUP Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

WINTON GROUP Ltd lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 22.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,116 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,182 shares during the quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,251,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,552,000 after acquiring an additional 424,201 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after purchasing an additional 110,040 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of META stock opened at $602.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $655.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $607.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were 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 of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 584,823 shares of company stock valued at $386,274,777 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

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.