3G Capital Partners LP Acquires 2,500 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

3G Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 77,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 13.0% of 3G Capital Partners LP’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. 3G Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $45,377,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $960,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverwater Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $572.21 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $576.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $603.54. The stock has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $432.28 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $624.00 to $676.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued 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 price target of $688.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.