Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Down 0.1% on Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded down 0.1% on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $494.54 and last traded at $495.74. 7,528,534 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 56% from the average session volume of 17,004,471 shares. The stock had previously closed at $496.10.

Specifically, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total value of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total value of $7,769,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, March 18th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $495.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $403.14.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 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.