Board of the Pension Protection Fund Makes New $995,000 Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,700 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $995,000. Meta Platforms comprises 1.1% of Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,612,808.90. This represents a 2.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.16, for a total value of $237,128.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,147,531.12. This represents a 3.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 495,682 shares of company stock valued at $301,101,199 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $617.12 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $595.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $554.81. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $358.61 and a 12 month high of $638.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.