Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 83,423 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 767,493 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 83,423 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.0% of Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $439,343,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. raised 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 valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 221.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at $311,054,400. The trade was a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total value of $459,405.15. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,197,043.71. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 118,218 shares of company stock valued at $65,819,414. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $565.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 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. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $573.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $525.35. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $313.66 and a 52 week high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $40.59 billion for 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

About Meta Platforms

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.