Invst LLC Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Invst LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,889 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,206 shares during the quarter. Invst LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,799,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $46,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Susquehanna upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $635.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $619.32 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $319.99 and a fifty-two week high of $629.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $581.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $535.09. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.57, for a total transaction of $214,995.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 13,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,863,715.45. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total value of $14,268,740.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,201 shares of company stock valued at $95,420,559. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.