Carter Financial Group INC. Purchases Shares of 856 Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Carter Financial Group INC. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 856 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in 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 during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings 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 valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on META. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1,117.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, December 5th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $819.46.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $644.23 on Monday. 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 has a market capitalization of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $665.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $707.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend 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, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,306. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $669.63, for a total transaction of $346,198.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 13,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,208,082.13. This trade represents a 3.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 40,977 shares of company stock valued at $25,834,356 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.