Captrust Financial Advisors Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 446,447 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,520 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.8% of Captrust Financial Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $255,564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were 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 directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,362,687. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 106,239 shares of company stock valued at $59,681,541. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $574.32 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $575.21 and a 200-day moving average of $527.37. 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. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Meta Platforms 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.