Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Has $31.72 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 971 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $31,715,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Montag & Caldwell LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC now owns 1,676 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $981,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 105.6% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 70,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,494,000 after buying an additional 36,392 shares in the last quarter. Kane Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,197,000. Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 27,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,291,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carroll Investors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Carroll Investors Inc now owns 2,285 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,343,000 after acquiring an additional 591 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2 %

META opened at $531.48 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $624.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $609.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $255,234.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,057,950. This trade represents a 2.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.85, for a total value of $22,050,105.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 450,214 shares of company stock worth $304,162,130 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price target (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $692.93.

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.