Jennifer Newstead Sells 905 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 32,387 shares in the company, valued at $18,612,808.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Jennifer Newstead also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 15th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.97, for a total value of $533,922.85.
• On Tuesday, October 8th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.89, for a total value of $533,850.45.
• On Tuesday, October 1st, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $578.55, for a total value of $523,587.75.
• On Tuesday, September 17th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $537.72, for a total transaction of $486,636.60.
• On Tuesday, September 10th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15.
• On Tuesday, September 3rd, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total transaction of $470,600.00.
• On Tuesday, August 27th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $519.05, for a total transaction of $469,740.25.
• On Tuesday, August 20th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.38, for a total value of $478,183.90.
• On Friday, August 16th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $532.21, for a total value of $481,650.05.
• On Monday, August 5th, Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $573.25 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $551.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $510.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $279.40 and a 1-year high of $602.95. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.7% during the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 822 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $471,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 10,151 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,811,000 after buying an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.7% during the third quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,545 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $884,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.4% in the third quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,444 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,406,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Solidarity Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.3% in the third quarter. Solidarity Wealth LLC now owns 9,685 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,544,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on META shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $643.00 to $811.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $621.63.

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.