Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC Cuts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,258 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 161 shares during the period. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,582,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. Capital City Trust Co. FL raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 6,146 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,518,000 after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Holistic Financial Partners raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.8% in the third quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 1,476 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $845,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.2% in the third quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,950 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 923.3% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 4,093 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,693 shares during the period. Finally, Aljian Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 114.9% during the third quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC now owns 3,146 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after buying an additional 1,682 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.52, for a total transaction of $11,150,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 338,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,810,838.24. The trade was a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 185,958 shares of company stock valued at $101,181,747 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ META opened at $565.52 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $571.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $523.03. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.64, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

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.