Meta Platforms, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the social networking company on Friday, December 27th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.33%.

Meta Platforms has a dividend payout ratio of 7.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $25.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.9%.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.8 %

Meta Platforms stock traded down $4.85 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $608.93. 8,065,889 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,828,977. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.83, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $317.04 and a 12 month high of $619.90. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $577.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $530.51.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.71.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $215,586.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 13,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,098,156. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 141,668 shares of company stock valued at $81,288,334 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.