Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. Buys 667 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 133.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,166 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 667 shares during the quarter. Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.7% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $595,152,000. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $515,383,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on META. Loop Capital raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $601.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total transaction of $406,486.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,034,122.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 283,526 shares of company stock worth $149,140,674 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock traded down $11.16 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $584.78. 11,978,209 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,505,369. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $279.40 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $527.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $502.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.22.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

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.