Adero Partners LLC Purchases 503 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Adero Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,517 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 503 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.7% of Adero Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Adero Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the third quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $36,600,000 after buying an additional 5,953 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,573,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 26.5% in the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $846,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $235,872,000 after acquiring an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on META shares. 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 report on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $570.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was 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 directly owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at $311,054,400. This trade represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were 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 185,958 shares of company stock worth $101,181,747 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $561.09 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $570.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $522.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $313.66 and a 52-week high of $602.95. The company has a market capitalization of $1.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22.

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, 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 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.