Morningstar Investment Management LLC Has $22.55 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 25.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 38,514 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 12,928 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.8% of Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $22,550,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 45,100 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,817,000 after buying an additional 3,495 shares during the period. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the third quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 805 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covenant Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.9% during the third quarter. Covenant Partners LLC now owns 3,782 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,165,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total value of $238,503.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 813,030 shares of company stock worth $525,952,077. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $673.70 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $650.26 and a 200-day moving average of $594.62. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.