Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD Acquires 27 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 725 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the quarter. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of META. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 527.3% during the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 95.6% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $46,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. UBS Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1 %

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

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.84 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. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Activity

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

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.