Syon Capital LLC Raises Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Syon Capital LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1,836.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 337,206 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 319,789 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 8.6% of Syon Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Syon Capital LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $119,357,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 5,347 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,893,000 after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 400.7% in the fourth quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 30,070 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,644,000 after purchasing an additional 24,065 shares in the last quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,332 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,533,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 51,263 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,145,000 after purchasing an additional 3,095 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $1.91 on Friday, reaching $443.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 31,869,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,353,445. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $495.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $403.40. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.85 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.21, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

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.