Calamos Advisors LLC Sells 925 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Calamos Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 709,854 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 925 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.2% of Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $251,260,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 183,244,796 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $55,011,920,000 after buying an additional 1,733,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,223,148,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,003,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,906,009,000 after buying an additional 946,871 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $10.09 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $491.71. The company had a trading volume of 3,626,954 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,865,826. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $207.13 and a twelve month high of $531.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $494.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $397.43.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.00 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 35,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total value of $7,722,037.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550 in the last 90 days. 13.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on META. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.53.

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.