Independent Family Office LLC Acquires 163 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Independent Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 27.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 763 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 163 shares during the quarter. Independent Family Office LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares during the period. LS Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $36,600,000 after purchasing an additional 5,953 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.5% in the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $846,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,197,043.71. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This trade represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 105,334 shares of company stock valued at $59,210,941. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen raised 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 Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $594.33. 1,022,314 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,804,930. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $313.66 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50 day moving average is $575.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $528.08. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

About Meta Platforms

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.