Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 2.1% Higher After Dividend Announcement

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 2.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $624.31 and last traded at $621.71. 6,407,204 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 14,796,893 shares. The stock had previously closed at $608.93.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.4 %

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $578.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $531.05. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.38, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,054,400. The trade was a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $520.57, for a total transaction of $214,995.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 13,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,863,715.45. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 142,160 shares of company stock valued at $81,611,223 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% during the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,190 shares during the period. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $595,152,000. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after purchasing an additional 890,434 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.