Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Short Interest Update

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 25,190,000 shares, a drop of 14.1% from the December 15th total of 29,330,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 12,110,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $670.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,416,908.60. The trade was a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 496,174 shares of company stock worth $301,408,499 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ META traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $612.77. 17,239,131 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,812,479. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $596.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $556.39. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $370.95 and a 1-year high of $638.40.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.