B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management Lowers Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,758 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,499 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.7% of B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest position. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,888 shares in the company, valued at $65,238,845.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,888 shares in the company, valued at $65,238,845.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $583.73, for a total value of $241,080.49. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,973,238.58. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 266,412 shares of company stock worth $140,058,708 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $522.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $608.58.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of META traded down $5.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $584.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,551,350 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,374,554. 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 company has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The company has a fifty day moving average of $534.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $504.36.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

About Meta Platforms

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.