Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 11,624 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 766 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 0.8% of Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,806,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 111.4% in the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the last quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 412,046 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $235,872,000 after purchasing an additional 5,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 721,339 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $412,606,000 after buying an additional 91,773 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total transaction of $524,990.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,482 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,262,708.20. This trade represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 531,190 shares of company stock worth $322,938,501 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $651.27.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $3.69 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $616.46. 11,584,932 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,100,104. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $381.16 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $597.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $557.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

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.