Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS Acquires New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 756 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of META traded down $11.99 on Friday, reaching $618.80. The stock had a trading volume of 2,405,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,715,318. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $583.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $536.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $328.64 and a 12-month high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 214,002 shares of company stock worth $126,740,653. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $635.20.

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.