Cravens & Co Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Cravens & Co Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,779 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 925 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 2.1% of Cravens & Co Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Cravens & Co Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,736,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,190 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $595,152,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 926.6% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 733,358 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $369,774,000 after buying an additional 661,923 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $285,690,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given 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, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $569.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $574.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $526.03. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $313.66 and a 52 week high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.52, for a total value of $11,150,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 338,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,810,838.24. This trade represents a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 111,561 shares of company stock worth $62,445,464 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.