Capital Investment Counsel LLC Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Capital Investment Counsel LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 17.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 559 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $320,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Draper Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $4,665,000. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 11,163 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,510,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 911,723 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $521,907,000 after buying an additional 50,151 shares during the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.9% during the 3rd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 28,800 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,486,000 after buying an additional 5,556 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.6% in the third quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 1,550 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $887,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on META. Citigroup lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $565.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $573.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $525.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $313.66 and a 12 month high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast 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 paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,493,681. This represents a 0.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 118,218 shares of company stock valued at $65,819,414. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.