Foundry Partners LLC Purchases 550 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 64.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,405 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the period. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after purchasing an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,243,603,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 8,901,521 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,211,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total value of $525,577.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,268,742.26. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $677.71, for a total transaction of $13,554,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 308,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $209,199,589.06. This represents a 6.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 549,113 shares of company stock worth $364,668,246 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 5.1 %

Shares of META opened at $504.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $648.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $609.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio 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.