Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 13,366 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 807,181 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 13,366 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.2% of Retirement Systems of Alabama’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $285,710,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,183 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 48.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 2,904 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $872,000 after purchasing an additional 946 shares during the last quarter. Financial & Tax Architects LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. Financial & Tax Architects LLC now owns 2,831 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $850,000 after purchasing an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. WS Portfolio Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 57.2% in the third quarter. WS Portfolio Advisory LLC now owns 55,249 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,586,000 after purchasing an additional 20,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.6% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 691,723 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $207,662,000 after buying an additional 17,853 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,574,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wolfe Research dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META traded up $1.91 on Friday, hitting $443.29. The stock had a trading volume of 32,645,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,233,678. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $494.48 and a 200-day moving average of $404.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.85 and a 52-week high of $531.49. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.2 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.