Heritage Investment Group Inc. Buys 140 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Heritage Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 25.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 692 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of META. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 48.8% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 49,191 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $23,886,000 after purchasing an additional 16,138 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 67,195 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $32,629,000 after purchasing an additional 12,301 shares during the period. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 541.8% in the 1st quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 3,819 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,862,000 after purchasing an additional 3,224 shares during the period. Northern Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Capital Management Inc. now owns 647 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $314,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 24.3% during the 1st quarter. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC now owns 7,131 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $554.40 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $569.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $521.96. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $313.66 and a 12 month high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,842,668.52. This represents a 3.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,593 shares of company stock valued at $75,253,970 over the last three months. 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.