Aviance Capital Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 9.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,412 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.8% of Aviance Capital Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Aviance Capital Partners LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,917,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of META. Sitrin Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the first quarter. Sitrin Capital Management LLC now owns 10,851 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,254,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. MBA Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the first quarter. MBA Advisors LLC now owns 1,702 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $981,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Aurora Private Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Aurora Private Wealth Inc. now owns 5,222 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,010,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 69.6% in the 1st quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 1,255 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $723,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goelzer Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the first quarter. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,695 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,588,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 price objective (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, June 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $727.95.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total transaction of $383,081.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 7,853 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,818,837.41. The trade was a 6.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $737.00, for a total transaction of $382,503.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 27,626 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,360,362. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,756 shares of company stock valued at $104,720,878 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $12.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $732.78. 11,398,608 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,483,554. The company has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $665.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $631.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Meta Platforms Company 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.