Highland Capital Management LLC Has $29.47 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Highland Capital Management LLC cut its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 50,339 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 840 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.7% of Highland Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $29,474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gries Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 2,666 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,561,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Ferguson Shapiro LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Ferguson Shapiro LLC now owns 743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. New England Research & Management Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 75.5% in the fourth quarter. New England Research & Management Inc. now owns 4,125 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,415,000 after buying an additional 1,775 shares in the last quarter. Milestone Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Milestone Asset Management LLC now owns 1,933 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,132,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, TLW Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $3,139,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on META. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $710.83.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $689.18 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $387.10 and a twelve month high of $710.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $613.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $567.04.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 25.44 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares in the company, valued at $19,510,470. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.