Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Director Sells $336,232.20 in Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $336,232.20. Following the sale, the director owned 9,342 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,755,013.36. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.2%

Meta Platforms stock traded down $1.50 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $701.41. The stock had a trading volume of 11,776,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,419,821. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $442.65 and a 52-week high of $747.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average of $681.78 and a 200 day moving average of $636.39.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $735.00 to $795.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $736.05.

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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