Sax Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Sax Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 12.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 519 shares during the quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $2,759,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after buying an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after buying an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $650.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total transaction of $252,071.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,004 shares in the company, valued at $310,890,460.68. This trade represents a 0.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 496,174 shares of company stock valued at $301,408,499. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $612.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $596.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $556.71. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $370.95 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Meta Platforms 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.