Echo Wealth Management LLC Sells 145 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Echo Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 833 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. Echo Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $492,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. Keystone Wealth Services LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $789,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the first quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,817 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,825,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 345.5% in the first quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,430 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,973,000 after buying an additional 39,885 shares during the period. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,539,000. Finally, Factory Mutual Insurance Co. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. now owns 330,590 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $160,528,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. 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 research note on Thursday, August 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $619.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of META stock opened at $582.01 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $602.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $547.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $509.22. The company has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.43, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid 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 payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total transaction of $239,808.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,120 shares in the company, valued at $6,456,828. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.65, for a total value of $239,808.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,120 shares in the company, valued at $6,456,828. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 250,324 shares of company stock worth $132,218,368 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.