Aviance Capital Partners LLC Purchases 556 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 20,562 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 556 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.7% of Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,039,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Cordant Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at about $70,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total value of $370,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 8,054 shares in the company, valued at $4,904,886. This represents a 7.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $622.24, for a total value of $22,351,483.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 725,689 shares of company stock worth $473,072,897 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $619.56 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $658.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $602.08. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

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.