Professional Financial Advisors LLC Sells 297 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Professional Financial Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,372 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 297 shares during the quarter. Professional Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,930,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 521,019 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $184,420,000 after buying an additional 31,513 shares in the last quarter. Clarity Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $273,000. Able Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $96,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 253.8% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 2,494 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,789 shares during the period. Finally, Napa Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $236,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $589.95 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $538.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $505.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.89, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The firm’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 earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. 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 currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total value of $17,101,342.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total value of $17,101,342.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,034,122.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 252,443 shares of company stock valued at $133,105,284 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $660.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.71.

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.