USS Investment Management Ltd Purchases 23 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

USS Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 404,457 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.7% of USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $236,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 88.7% in the fourth quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 673,029 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $394,065,000 after acquiring an additional 316,392 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.5% during the 4th quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 22,827 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,366,000 after buying an additional 5,859 shares during the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 817,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $478,802,000 after buying an additional 72,338 shares during the last quarter. Whelan Financial lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Whelan Financial now owns 2,931 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,716,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 17,103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,014,000 after buying an additional 3,121 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $703.21, for a total transaction of $13,830,734.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $686.28, for a total transaction of $417,258.24. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 9,270 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,361,815.60. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 98,837 shares of company stock worth $64,758,661. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of META stock opened at $640.43 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $442.65 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $571.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $607.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Pivotal Research cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $701.05.

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.