Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda. reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 16.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 28,462 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 5,793 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 7.7% of Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,293,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. LS Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $36,600,000 after buying an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the third quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 26.5% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $846,000 after buying an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $235,872,000 after buying an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $634.10.
Get Our Latest Research Report on Meta Platforms
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total transaction of $295,569.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,508 shares in the company, valued at $311,493,681. The trade was a 0.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 185,958 shares of company stock valued at $101,181,747 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
META stock traded down $6.40 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $559.12. The stock had a trading volume of 5,739,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,971,226. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $313.66 and a 52-week high of $602.95. The company has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.22. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $571.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $523.03. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 9.42%.
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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.
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