Insider Selling: Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CFO Sells 8,951 Shares of Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. This trade represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of META opened at $561.09 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $313.66 and a 1-year high of $602.95. The company has a market capitalization of $1.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $570.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $522.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, DA Davidson began coverage on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.