Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Insider Sells $533,922.85 in Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.97, for a total value of $533,922.85. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,641,281.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

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

• On Tuesday, October 8th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was 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 shares were 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 shares were sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total value 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 value of $469,740.25.
• On Tuesday, August 20th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were 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 stock was sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15.
• On Tuesday, July 23rd, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $489.80, for a total value of $443,269.00.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $576.93. The stock had a trading volume of 8,687,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,244,576. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The company has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $544.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $507.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Central Valley Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,271,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,787 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.0% during the third quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 1,906 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the third quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $615,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $585.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $475.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $617.37.

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.