Carter Financial Group INC. Invests $632,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Carter Financial Group INC. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 856 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on META. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Arete Research set a $718.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $950.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $819.46.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $644.23 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $665.92 and its 200-day moving average is $707.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.03 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $1,590,690.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,962,956.64. This represents a 21.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total value of $6,935,793.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. This represents a 82.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,977 shares of company stock worth $25,834,356. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.