Hobbs Group Advisors LLC Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hobbs Group Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 14.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,163 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 269 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,238,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on META. DA Davidson began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued 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 MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $635.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $619.32 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $319.99 and a 1 year high of $629.79. The company has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $581.32 and a 200 day moving average of $535.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.57, for a total transaction of $214,995.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 13,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,863,715.45. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 164,201 shares of company stock valued at $95,420,559. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.