Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 1.3% – What’s Next?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price traded up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $607.99 and last traded at $607.75. 4,726,056 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 14,809,423 shares. The stock had previously closed at $599.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $638.00.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.7 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $587.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $545.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $578.55, for a total transaction of $523,587.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 35,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,308,262.10. The trade was a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 324,805 shares of company stock valued at $196,770,261. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Crown Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.6% in the second quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,333 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 60.3% during the second quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC now owns 2,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,329,000 after acquiring an additional 992 shares during the period. Emfo LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.9% in the second quarter. Emfo LLC now owns 4,199 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,117,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.9% in the second quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 96,540 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $48,677,000 after acquiring an additional 6,202 shares during the period. Finally, Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.8% during the second quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. now owns 1,116 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $563,000 after purchasing an additional 207 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.