Lifeworks Advisors LLC Purchases 495 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lifeworks Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 46.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,572 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 495 shares during the quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $900,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 48.8% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 49,191 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $23,886,000 after acquiring an additional 16,138 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 22.4% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 67,195 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $32,629,000 after acquiring an additional 12,301 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 541.8% in the first quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 3,819 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,862,000 after buying an additional 3,224 shares in the last quarter. First Foundation Advisors lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the first quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 20,020 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,722,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Councilmark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,456,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $554.08 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $313.66 and a 1 year high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $568.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $521.17.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 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. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at $17,360,833.70. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.52, for a total value of $11,150,400.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 338,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,810,838.24. The trade was a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 141,498 shares of company stock valued at $75,732,154 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on META. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Two research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

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.