BNP Paribas Acquires 90 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

BNP Paribas grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises 1.6% of BNP Paribas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $37,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $49,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in 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 own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 4,909 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $519.17, for a total transaction of $2,548,605.53. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 519,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,449,230. This trade represents a 0.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.35, for a total value of $215,317.55. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 14,011 shares in the company, valued at $7,304,634.85. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 111,561 shares of company stock valued at $62,445,464. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $569.20 on Thursday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $574.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $526.03. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $313.66 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The company has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $570.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.71.

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.