Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s Largest Position

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 139.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 28,971 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,860 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 1.1% of Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,963,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in META. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during 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 period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the third quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,573,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. PBMares Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the third quarter. PBMares Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,718 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $984,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the period. Finally, Hedeker Wealth LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 5.9% during the third quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 10,833 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,201,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $665.75, for a total value of $613,155.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 34,866 shares in the company, valued at $23,212,039.50. This trade represents a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,154,349.31. This represents a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 813,951 shares of company stock valued at $526,565,232. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of META stock opened at $668.20 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $653.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $596.59. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

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.