Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,226,027 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 160,575 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 4.9% of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned 0.09% of Meta Platforms worth $1,643,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the period. Smart Money Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 20.4% in the first quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 2,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 7.3% in the first quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 662 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Waddell & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.0% during the first quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 2,508 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,446,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $905.00 to $875.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $950.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Benchmark lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $819.43.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.03, for a total value of $330,378.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 14,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,117,680.04. The trade was a 3.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total transaction of $333,312.18. Following the transaction, the insider owned 30,734 shares in the company, valued at $19,737,989.48. The trade was a 1.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 41,959 shares of company stock worth $26,671,107. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of META opened at $673.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.74, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $673.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $706.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The business’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $6.03 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.28%.

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.