Public Sector Pension Investment Board Has $298.27 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 521,043 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.6% of Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $298,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 221.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,362,687. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 106,239 shares of company stock worth $59,681,541. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $569.20 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $574.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $526.33. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $313.66 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. On average, analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.