Legal & General Group Plc Sells 3,882,116 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 22.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,728,633 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 3,882,116 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.1% of Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.54% of Meta Platforms worth $8,038,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on META shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 535,725 shares of company stock worth $356,391,449. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $504.73 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $648.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $610.77. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

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.