Chase Investment Counsel Corp Acquires 16,347 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Chase Investment Counsel Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 652.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,851 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,347 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.9% of Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,672,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,011,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,143,462 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,945,799,000 after buying an additional 111,735 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $12.28 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $431.01. 12,582,870 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,312,766. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $229.85 and a one year high of $531.49. The company’s 50 day moving average is $494.48 and its 200 day moving average is $405.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $404.00, for a total transaction of $228,664.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,026,880. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $404.00, for a total transaction of $228,664.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 34,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,026,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock valued at $620,679,759. Company 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.