Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Acquired by Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC

Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,373 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.3% of Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Palo Alto Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 221.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. 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 note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.0 %

META stock opened at $554.08 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $568.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $521.17. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $313.66 and a 52 week high of $602.95. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $50,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at $311,054,400. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at $17,360,833.70. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 141,498 shares of company stock worth $75,732,154 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.