3Chopt Investment Partners LLC Buys 3,239 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

3Chopt Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 35.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,378 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,239 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.9% of 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. 3Chopt Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,241,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. S.A. Mason LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 371 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $187,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Northern Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Capital Management Inc. now owns 647 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $314,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Buckingham Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 433 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $218,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $563.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $620.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $593.28.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $572.44 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $517.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $500.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $577.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $512.00, for a total value of $210,944.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,795 shares in the company, valued at $3,479,040. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 324,751 shares of company stock worth $170,575,643 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.