Mackenzie Financial Corp Sells 77,158 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mackenzie Financial Corp lowered its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 898,336 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 77,158 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $317,975,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Stockton lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Keel Point LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,008,000 after acquiring an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $269,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Mizuho boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $509.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $500.23 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $492.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $394.61.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,459,469 shares of company stock valued at $691,726,161 in the last ninety days. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.