Jennifer Newstead Sells 905 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $604.54, for a total transaction of $547,108.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,105 shares in the company, valued at $18,804,216.70. This trade represents a 2.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Jennifer Newstead also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 7th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total value of $571,552.75.
• On Tuesday, December 31st, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80.
• On Tuesday, December 24th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $602.47, for a total transaction of $545,235.35.
• On Tuesday, December 17th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.66, for a total transaction of $567,127.30.
• On Tuesday, December 10th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $559,290.00.
• On Tuesday, December 3rd, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $538,475.00.
• On Tuesday, November 26th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50.
• On Tuesday, November 5th, Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total value of $511,497.70.
• On Tuesday, October 29th, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total transaction of $524,990.50.
• On Tuesday, October 22nd, Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total value of $520,103.50.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of META traded down $5.82 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $611.30. The stock had a trading volume of 8,337,733 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,833,604. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $595.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $555.25. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $358.61 and a 12-month high of $638.40. 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 $1.54 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,754,450 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,911,029,000 after purchasing an additional 208,677 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. Citigroup raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.05.

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.