Rakuten Securities Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 95.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,258 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,543 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.8% of Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,155,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,150,374 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,520,720,000 after acquiring an additional 338,263 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 5,780,270 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,308,858,000 after purchasing an additional 57,799 shares during the period. Apollon Financial LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,331 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $762,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 22,196 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,706,000 after buying an additional 1,588 shares during the period. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 44,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,545,000 after buying an additional 1,606 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on META. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” 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 issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $536.92, for a total value of $221,747.96. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 14,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,744,534.08. The trade was a 2.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 338,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,810,838.24. This represents a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 158,200 shares of company stock worth $84,533,106 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $554.08 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $568.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $519.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $313.66 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.