Insider Selling: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Director Sells 465 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Meta Platforms Director Robert Kimmitt sold 465 shares at an average price of $716.97, reducing his holdings by 5.53% to approximately $5.7 million.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, representing an annualized yield of 0.3%.
• Brokerages have set new price targets for Meta, with some raising estimates to as high as $900, reflecting a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) Director Robert Kimmitt sold 465 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.97, for a total value of $333,391.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,947 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,697,760.59. This represents a 5.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $4.84 on Friday, hitting $716.91. The stock had a trading volume of 12,205,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,483,915. 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 twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.96, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $747.80 and a 200 day moving average of $682.13.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 7.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $845.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $830.68.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $23,155,393,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.