JFS Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

JFS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,086 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 116 shares during the quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,194,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Diversify Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 187.0% during the 3rd quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,147 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,411,000 after purchasing an additional 8,566 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 64,939 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $37,174,000 after buying an additional 5,436 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC now owns 987 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $565,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,026 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,174,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the period. Finally, Edge Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $248,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total transaction of $295,569.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,508 shares in the company, valued at $311,493,681. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $311,493,681. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 251,993 shares of company stock worth $133,271,982 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $567.16 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $308.33 and a 1 year high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $555.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $513.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

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.