Northcape Wealth Management LLC Reduces Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Northcape Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 478 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 28 shares during the quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 221.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on META shares. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,054,400. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 140,593 shares of company stock valued at $75,253,970. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $554.40 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.11, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $569.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $521.96.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business 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, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. 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.