Bell Asset Management Ltd Trims Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Bell Asset Management Ltd reduced its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,440 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,137 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 3.0% of Bell Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Bell Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $13,610,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,184,163,000 after purchasing an additional 400,927 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,575,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,977,361,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,546 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,117.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday. Mizuho reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $810.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $819.43.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $673.42 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $673.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $706.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.03 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given 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 presently 9.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,306. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total value of $333,312.18. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 30,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,737,989.48. This represents a 1.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,959 shares of company stock valued at $26,671,107. Insiders own 13.61% 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.