OneAscent Financial Services LLC Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,713 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vertex Planning Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.6% in the third quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 909 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.4% during the third quarter. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. now owns 6,727 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,851,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Belmont Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Belmont Capital LLC now owns 174,768 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $100,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619 shares during the period. Lindenwold Advisors INC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nixon Peabody Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 15,636 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,951,000 after purchasing an additional 3,434 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $516.36, for a total transaction of $4,117,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 531,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $274,643,622.24. This represents a 1.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 168,843 shares of company stock worth $92,083,554. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4 %

META opened at $563.09 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $572.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $523.31. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month 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.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $570.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.