Wexford Capital LP Sells 547 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Wexford Capital LP lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 32.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,114 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 547 shares during the quarter. Wexford Capital LP’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Accel Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 28.7% during the 2nd quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 704 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Sendero Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 26.6% during the second quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,996,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748 shares during the period. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 60.9% in the second quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 822 shares during the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.5% in the second quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 6,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,320,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the second quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 51,235 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,833,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $608.93 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $317.04 and a 52 week high of $619.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $577.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $530.51. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.57, for a total value of $214,995.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 13,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,863,715.45. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares in the company, valued at $19,197,043.71. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 142,160 shares of company stock worth $81,611,223 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.71.

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.