Insider Selling: Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Insider Sells 15,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Meta Platforms insider Christopher K. Cox sold 15,000 shares of stock for a total of $11.5 million, reducing his ownership by 6.32% to approximately 222,205 shares.
• The company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $5.75, alongside a 21.6% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Meta recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share with a dividend payout ratio of 7.60% and a yield of 0.3%.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) insider Christopher K. Cox sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $767.80, for a total transaction of $11,517,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 222,205 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $170,608,999. This represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of META stock traded up $7.47 on Friday, hitting $769.30. The stock had a trading volume of 7,308,601 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,419,927. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.27. The stock's 50 day moving average is $711.99 and its 200-day moving average is $649.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $784.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The firm's revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.60%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Roth Capital increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $822.41.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. 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.

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