Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 1% on Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares traded down 1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $643.40 and last traded at $650.13. 15,930,177 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 3% from the average session volume of 15,540,646 shares. The stock had previously closed at $656.96.

Specifically, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $669.63, for a total value of $346,198.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 13,751 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,208,082.13. This represents a 3.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total value of $333,312.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 30,734 shares in the company, valued at $19,737,989.48. This represents a 1.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. BNP Paribas began coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price objective on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 price objective (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $819.46.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

The company has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $665.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $706.78.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $6.03 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.28%.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $64,158,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after purchasing an additional 682,768 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,247,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,823,375,000 after buying an additional 278,180 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.