True North Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

True North Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 398.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,008 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,394 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.7% of True North Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. True North Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,896,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,212,506,000 after buying an additional 8,405,558 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $661.11, for a total transaction of $341,793.87. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 12,717 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,407,335.87. This represents a 3.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $646.00, for a total value of $374,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,983,882. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 42,074 shares of company stock valued at $26,359,548 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of META opened at $663.29 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $654.81 and its 200 day moving average is $706.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer downgraded Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $825.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note 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 assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $820.22.

Meta Platforms Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.