Vantage Investment Partners LLC Sells 54 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Vantage Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 26,719 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 54 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.3% of Vantage Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Vantage Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,295,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $47,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total value of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.52, for a total transaction of $11,150,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 338,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,810,838.24. This trade represents a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 158,200 shares of company stock valued at $84,533,106 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $577.16 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $565.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $518.72. The company has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. 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 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.