Employees Retirement System of Texas Purchases 60,716 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 435,738 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,716 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.6% of Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $321,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% during the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Maseco LLP bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, eCIO Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $58,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $870.00 target price (down from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $819.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $4,190,037.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,857,980.20. The trade was a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total value of $365,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,476,894.45. This trade represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,959 shares of company stock valued at $26,671,107. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.8%

META opened at $673.42 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $673.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $706.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $6.03 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

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.