Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Down 2.4%

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price dropped 2.4% on Friday . The company traded as low as $494.23 and last traded at $500.18. Approximately 6,856,101 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 16,109,591 shares. The stock had previously closed at $512.70.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.64.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.7 %

The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $491.62 and a 200-day moving average of $464.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $4,223,529.35. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,580 shares in the company, valued at $35,190,573. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $4,223,529.35. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,580 shares in the company, valued at $35,190,573. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total value of $291,675.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 294,278 shares of company stock worth $146,060,559 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Concentrum Wealth Management increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.