Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,934 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 155 shares during the quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,969,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 195.9% during the 3rd quarter. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP now owns 1,284 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $735,000 after acquiring an additional 850 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,431 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,688,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. 1776 Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $282,000. LJI Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the third quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,613 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,641,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 692 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $396,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.2 %

META stock opened at $561.09 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $570.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $522.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid 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 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.53, for a total value of $8,162,353.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 185,958 shares of company stock valued at $101,181,747 over the last quarter. Company 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.