Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 150 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,860 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the first quarter. Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,269 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,587,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Edge Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $270,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 48.8% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 49,191 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,886,000 after purchasing an additional 16,138 shares in the last quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 234.1% during the first quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,723 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,236,000 after purchasing an additional 6,112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at $22,878,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $567.16 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $555.99 and a 200 day moving average of $513.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $308.33 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the firm’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 value of $17,101,342.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,315,852.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total value of $17,101,342.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,092 shares of company stock valued at $132,865,496 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Truist Financial upped 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus 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.