Insider Selling: Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Sells 84 Shares of Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,054,400. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Mark Zuckerberg also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 7th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00.
• On Friday, August 30th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 4,909 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $519.17, for a total value of $2,548,605.53.
• On Monday, August 26th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.48, for a total transaction of $8,693,056.96.
• On Wednesday, August 28th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,975 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $516.36, for a total transaction of $4,117,971.00.
• On Friday, August 23rd, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $531.46, for a total transaction of $8,876,444.92.
• On Monday, August 19th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.94, for a total transaction of $8,800,951.88.
• On Wednesday, August 21st, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.24, for a total value of $8,906,174.48.
• On Friday, August 16th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.09, for a total value of $8,836,861.18.
• On Monday, August 12th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $514.89, for a total value of $8,599,692.78.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.51, for a total transaction of $8,827,174.02.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ META opened at $576.47 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $546.53 and its 200 day moving average is $508.68. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $279.40 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gradient Investments LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $36,600,000 after acquiring an additional 5,953 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,101,501 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,962,767,000 after acquiring an additional 748,076 shares during the last quarter. ERn Financial LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 59.0% in the 1st quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $802,000 after acquiring an additional 613 shares during the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 26.5% in the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lincoln National Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 34,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,894,000 after acquiring an additional 2,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on META. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $617.37.

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.