Meta Platforms, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the social networking company on Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th.

Meta Platforms has a payout ratio of 8.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $24.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.3%.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $524.62 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $505.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $495.43. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $279.40 and a 52-week high of $544.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $562.00 to $643.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $577.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total value of $459,405.15. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,285,234.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 357,574 shares of company stock worth $185,587,773. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.