Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Shares Bought by Centaurus Financial Inc.

Centaurus Financial Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 23.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 28,800 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,556 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.0% of Centaurus Financial Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,486,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of META. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 1,550 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 32.1% during the third quarter. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC now owns 2,945 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,686,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.1% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 9,088 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 49,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MGB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. MGB Wealth Management LLC now owns 870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on META shares. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 620 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $345,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,135,544. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 118,218 shares of company stock valued at $65,819,414 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ META opened at $565.11 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $573.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $525.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $313.66 and a one year high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued 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 company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

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.