Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. Has $7.40 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,024 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 872 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.3% of Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $7,399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 237.5% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $42,000. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Maseco LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, eCIO Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at $58,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $825.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $823.93.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $647.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $678.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $706.59. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $598.54, for a total transaction of $309,445.18. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 14,785 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,849,413.90. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total value of $429,501.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,306. This represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 40,923 shares of company stock worth $26,007,416 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is 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.