Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Stake Lifted by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,638,779 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 69,210 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.6% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.07% of Meta Platforms worth $1,209,448,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on META shares. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $810.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer downgraded Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Arete Research set a $718.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $860.00 to $808.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $950.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $819.46.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $669.63, for a total value of $346,198.71. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,208,082.13. The trade was a 3.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $664.16, for a total value of $344,699.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,215 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,067,594.40. This trade represents a 1.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 40,977 shares of company stock worth $25,834,356 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $644.23 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $665.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $707.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The company has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.03 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.