Ashburton Jersey Ltd Purchases New Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 5,996 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,511,000. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.5% of Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 134.1% in the fourth quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 25,189 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $14,748,000 after buying an additional 14,427 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 491,785 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $287,945,000 after acquiring an additional 62,473 shares during the period. Oribel Capital Management LP increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 869.0% in the 4th quarter. Oribel Capital Management LP now owns 56,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $32,906,000 after purchasing an additional 50,400 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 14,250 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,344,000 after purchasing an additional 850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gator Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Gator Capital Management LLC now owns 2,080 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,218,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 5.1 %

Shares of META opened at $504.73 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $648.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $610.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares in the company, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total value of $252,797.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,467,522.10. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 549,113 shares of company stock valued at $364,668,246 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.