Congress Asset Management Co. Has $195.07 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Congress Asset Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 340,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,465 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.3% of Congress Asset Management Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $195,066,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the first 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 during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 95.6% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,285,234.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 251,092 shares of company stock valued at $132,865,496 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Roth Mkm upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $567.16 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $555.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $513.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $308.33 and a 52-week high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders 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 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.