GAMMA Investing LLC Acquires 3,741 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 48,232 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 3,741 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.0% of GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $35,421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in 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 buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after buying an additional 682,768 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total transaction of $6,935,793.90. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. The trade was a 82.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $669.63, for a total value of $346,198.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,751 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,208,082.13. This 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 a total of 40,458 shares of company stock valued at $25,436,200 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $870.00 price objective (down previously from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $837.00 to $802.00 and set an “overweight” 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 given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $819.46.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $657.15 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $663.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $707.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The business 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 company posted $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect 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 issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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%.

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.