Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) to Issue $0.53 Quarterly Dividend

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 29th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of 0.525 per share by the social networking company on Thursday, June 26th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th.

Meta Platforms has a dividend payout ratio of 7.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $30.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.0%.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $2.82 during trading on Friday, hitting $642.23. The company had a trading volume of 16,230,863 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,482,228. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $578.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $611.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $701.05.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $3,334,383.52. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 16,463 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,855,043.68. This trade represents a 23.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 56,664 shares of company stock valued at $35,484,670. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the period. Finally, Headwater Capital Co Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the 1st quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.