Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Sells $1,025,052.06 in Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $1,025,052.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 139,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,834,277.94. This trade represents a 1.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $3.65 during trading on Monday, hitting $694.06. 12,323,140 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,524,302. The stock has a market cap of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $442.65 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $587.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $615.55. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Fjell Capital LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $1,836,000. Opulen Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $325,000. Daner Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $334,000. Appleton Partners Inc. MA grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA now owns 26,312 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $15,406,000 after buying an additional 951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays lowered their price objective 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $735.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $702.48.

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.