Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Announces $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the social networking company on Friday, December 27th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.33%.

Meta Platforms has a payout ratio of 7.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $25.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.9%.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $608.93 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $317.04 and a 12 month high of $619.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $577.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $530.51. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $670.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,054,400. The trade was a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 142,160 shares of company stock valued at $81,611,223 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.