Aigen Investment Management LP Makes New $2.71 Million Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,631 shares of the social networking company's stock, valued at approximately $2,711,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $719.26.

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Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META traded up $7.72 on Tuesday, reaching $605.71. 17,323,570 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,656,731. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $657.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $601.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.00, for a total transaction of $593,124.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,945 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,860,580. This trade represents a 2.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 761,002 shares of company stock valued at $495,449,598. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.