New York State Common Retirement Fund Raises Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,949,325 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,476 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.3% of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.12% of Meta Platforms worth $1,726,859,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,166 shares in the company, valued at $11,068,173.34. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 812,422 shares of company stock valued at $525,534,818 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.3 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $668.13 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $647.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $593.08. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on META. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

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.