Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Has $618.96 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 7.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,057,124 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 72,452 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.8% of Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $618,957,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. NBT Bank N A NY grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 8,177 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,788,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. SLT Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $1,626,000. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 10,314 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,039,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.3% in the fourth quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 6,084 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,562,000 after buying an additional 2,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. now owns 496 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on META shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 target price on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $607.60 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $658.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $602.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,035 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.63, for a total value of $13,631,512.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total transaction of $260,008.28. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 18,340 shares in the company, valued at $11,546,130.40. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 690,689 shares of company stock worth $451,269,409 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.