Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Down 1.2% on Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price traded down 1.2% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $581.25 and last traded at $590.32. 24,006,840 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 56% from the average session volume of 15,410,489 shares. The stock had previously closed at $597.69.

Specifically, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,063 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $3,085,695.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 6,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,214.56. The trade was a 42.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $4,190,037.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,857,980.20. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $604.23, for a total transaction of $312,386.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,245,927.46. This trade represents a 3.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $905.00 to $875.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $825.05.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $707.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $706.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.28%.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $37,902,948,000 after purchasing an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. 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 purchasing an additional 278,180 shares during the period. 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.