Conning Inc. Has $11.08 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Conning Inc. trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 10.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,215 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,303 shares during the quarter. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $11,075,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 712.2% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,537,631 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,462,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,186 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $664.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $812.00 price target (up from $683.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $719.29.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ META opened at $718.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $747.90. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $662.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $631.21. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total value of $383,081.49. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,818,837.41. The trade was a 6.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,756 shares of company stock worth $104,720,878 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.