Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 1.9% After Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price traded down 1.9% during trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $528.78 and last traded at $529.47. 6,026,109 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 16,198,923 shares. The stock had previously closed at $539.91.

Specifically, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $512.00, for a total value of $210,944.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,795 shares in the company, valued at $3,479,040. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $512.00, for a total value of $210,944.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 6,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,479,040. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 260,459 shares of company stock worth $128,049,749 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, July 1st. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.64.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.9 %

The company has a market cap of $1.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $488.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $464.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.