Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1.3%

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price rose 1.3% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $522.88 and last traded at $519.84. Approximately 3,775,634 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 16,398,082 shares. The stock had previously closed at $513.12.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $480.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $453.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $431.05, for a total transaction of $252,164.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,794,965.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 233,512 shares of company stock worth $113,597,536 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.