Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 15,432 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 97,857 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 15,432 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.8% of Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $56,017,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $554.08 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.22. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $568.11 and a 200-day moving average of $519.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $313.66 and a 52 week high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.94, for a total value of $8,800,951.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 46,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,393,106.48. This trade represents a 26.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.38, for a total value of $478,183.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 40,532 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,298.16. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 158,200 shares of company stock worth $84,533,106 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by 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.