Amalgamated Bank Decreases Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Amalgamated Bank decreased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 471,568 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 15,124 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 2.3% of Amalgamated Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $276,108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after buying an additional 4,126,190 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066,437 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after acquiring an additional 890,434 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 4,318,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,471,822,000 after purchasing an additional 550,852 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total value of $14,268,740.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total value of $257,505.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,753 shares in the company, valued at $11,692,495.50. The trade was a 2.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 796,712 shares of company stock worth $517,503,564. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $655.05 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s 50 day moving average is $654.28 and its 200-day moving average is $597.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

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.