Bamco Inc. NY Cuts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Bamco Inc. NY lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 273,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 8,054 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $201,542,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 237.5% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on META. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective 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. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Four 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $819.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total transaction of $365,610.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,476,894.45. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $1,590,690.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,962,956.64. The trade was a 21.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,959 shares of company stock valued at $26,578,191. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $644.23 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $665.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $706.78. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued 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 return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

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.