Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. trimmed its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 85 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Verum Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $222,000. Kaizen Financial Strategies raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 57.8% during the fourth quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 1,599 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. Well Done LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 1,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. HT Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. HT Partners LLC now owns 1,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $634,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.55, for a total value of $198,977.30. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,001,725.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock worth $703,629,367. 13.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $536.00 to $609.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $4.71 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $489.15. The company had a trading volume of 9,265,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,803,041. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The company’s 50-day moving average is $464.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $375.30. The company has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $202.54 and a twelve month high of $523.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

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.