WCG Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 863 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

WCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,142 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.0% of WCG Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,605,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,669,795 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,184,163,000 after acquiring an additional 400,927 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on META shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price objective on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $900.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $819.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total transaction of $333,312.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,737,989.48. The trade was a 1.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total transaction of $365,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,347 shares in the company, valued at $4,476,894.45. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 40,923 shares of company stock worth $25,887,293. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $666.80 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $671.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $707.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.03 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors 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 yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date 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.