Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 0.9% on Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) dropped 0.9% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $485.80 and last traded at $489.33. Approximately 3,425,547 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 17,703,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $493.86.

Specifically, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,504,435 shares of company stock worth $703,629,367 over the last 90 days. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on META. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $536.00 to $609.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.84, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $464.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $375.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.42%.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,542,953 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,410,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,548,671 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,469,906,000 after purchasing an additional 927,491 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.