E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 7,567 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,713 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,567 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.1% of E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $22,667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after buying an additional 204,412 shares during the period. Presidio Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.5% in the third quarter. Presidio Capital Management LLC now owns 661 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.8% in the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 86,644 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,598,000 after buying an additional 4,721 shares during the period. Finally, Lakeshore Financial Planning Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.9% in the third quarter. Lakeshore Financial Planning Inc. now owns 741 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on META shares. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $605.71 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average of $657.45 and a 200-day moving average of $601.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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, 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $622.24, for a total value of $22,351,483.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 725,081 shares of company stock valued at $472,702,625. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.