Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 3.4% – Here’s What Happened

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 3.4% on Monday . The company traded as high as $622.54 and last traded at $616.71. 6,660,177 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average session volume of 16,240,784 shares. The stock had previously closed at $596.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $656.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $608.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This represents a 2.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 585,605 shares of company stock worth $386,710,448 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $1,162,918,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.