Lathrop Investment Management Corp Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Lathrop Investment Management Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 37.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 637 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the quarter. Lathrop Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of META. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 221.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 168,843 shares of company stock worth $92,083,554. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on META. Barclays lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $559.14 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $313.66 and a twelve month high of $602.95. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50 day moving average of $572.74 and a 200-day moving average of $524.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.