Mark Zuckerberg Sells 13,793 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 118,279 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. The trade was a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Mark Zuckerberg also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 9th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,466 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.25, for a total transaction of $5,235,532.50.
• On Wednesday, June 11th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,802 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.96, for a total transaction of $5,476,691.92.
• On Friday, June 6th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,462 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $1,025,052.06.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ META opened at $682.87 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $604.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $619.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.19%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $33,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $704.26.

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.