Investment Advisory Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Investment Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,813 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the period. Investment Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,610,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of META. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 527.3% during the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $780.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $475.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $613.46.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,744,844.39. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,744,844.39. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 250,239 shares of company stock worth $132,033,148 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $586.27 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $542.26 and a 200 day moving average of $507.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

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.