Saxon Interests Inc. Buys New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Saxon Interests Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,184 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,835,000. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.9% of Saxon Interests Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $8.28 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $485.58. 15,191,214 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,907,553. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $202.54 and a twelve month high of $523.57. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $464.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $375.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $496.35.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $513.32, for a total value of $251,526.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,148,086.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock worth $703,629,367. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Meta Platforms

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.