Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Acquires 753 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 412,799 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 753 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.7% of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $241,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $654.20.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,010 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,215,915.50. This represents a 2.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total transaction of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock traded up $11.04 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $647.49. 19,039,689 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,840,293. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $385.66 and a 12 month high of $652.00. 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 capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $601.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $560.51.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $40.21 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 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.