Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 9,475 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,477,463 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,475 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.6% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.10% of Meta Platforms worth $877,798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 670 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $237,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 1,547 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners now owns 4,566 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,616,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,468 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edge Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 730 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $530.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $1.91 during trading on Friday, reaching $443.29. The stock had a trading volume of 32,645,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,233,678. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $229.85 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $494.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $404.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

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.