Aire Advisors LLC Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aire Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,307 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Aire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,278,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of META opened at $610.98 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $656.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $608.02.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on META. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 target price on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 586,213 shares of company stock worth $387,084,349 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.