West Financial Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 85 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% in 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 during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 95.6% during the first quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $563.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Raymond James increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $605.33.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $590.51 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.22. The business’s fifty day moving average is $534.36 and its 200-day moving average is $504.36.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 14,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.38, for a total transaction of $7,487,274.12. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 135,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,178,793.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total transaction of $406,486.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,034,122.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 14,874 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.38, for a total transaction of $7,487,274.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 135,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,178,793.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 266,412 shares of company stock valued at $140,058,708. Corporate 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.