Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Reduces Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. cut its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 52,731 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 849 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 0.6% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $30,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third 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. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after buying an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on META. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $689.18 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $613.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $566.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $710.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.