Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 0.1% Following Dividend Announcement

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $726.30 and last traded at $726.42. 3,842,659 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 15,238,539 shares. The stock had previously closed at $725.38.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $638.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $582.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 793,070 shares of company stock valued at $504,185,108 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 2,681 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares during the period. Wahed Invest LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 55,113 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $32,269,000 after acquiring an additional 2,185 shares during the period. Pennington Partners & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $1,302,000. South Plains Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $1,270,000. Finally, Palestra Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Palestra Capital Management LLC now owns 438,062 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $256,490,000 after purchasing an additional 54,061 shares during 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.