Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 1.1%

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shot up 1.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $572.72 and last traded at $569.43. 3,757,818 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 15,584,332 shares. The stock had previously closed at $563.33.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on META. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $522.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $578.92.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.3 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.71, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $510.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $498.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total transaction of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,254,449.63. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total transaction of $17,101,342.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 349,472 shares of company stock worth $182,544,600 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vantage Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 45.7% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $815,000 after acquiring an additional 722 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 66.4% during the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,413,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Finally, Rollins Financial grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 30,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,851,000 after acquiring an additional 2,133 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.