Equity Investment Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Equity Investment Corp lessened its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,331 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 260 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $762,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of META. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $36,600,000 after buying an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.5% in the second quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $846,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $235,872,000 after acquiring an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.8 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $565.52 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $571.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $523.03. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $313.66 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 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 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $345,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,135,544. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 185,958 shares of company stock valued at $101,181,747 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

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.