Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 0.4% – Here’s What Happened

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares dropped 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $665.67 and last traded at $671.73. Approximately 4,726,860 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 14,015,645 shares. The stock had previously closed at $674.33.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $606.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $562.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,842,668.52. The trade was a 3.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock valued at $368,414,542 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.