Javier Olivan Sells 490 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.00, for a total transaction of $248,430.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 9,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,587,843. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Javier Olivan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 15th, Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.25, for a total transaction of $239,242.50.
• On Friday, March 8th, Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.32, for a total value of $251,526.80.
• On Friday, March 1st, Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $492.13, for a total transaction of $241,143.70.
• On Friday, February 23rd, Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70.
• On Thursday, February 15th, Javier Olivan sold 7,556 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $3,576,103.68.
• On Monday, January 29th, Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00.
• On Wednesday, January 24th, Javier Olivan sold 4,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $395.00, for a total value of $1,777,500.00.
• On Monday, January 22nd, Javier Olivan sold 9,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $388.90, for a total transaction of $3,500,100.00.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $493.86 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $197.90 and a one year high of $523.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $464.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $375.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 155,776,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,704,616,000 after buying an additional 2,841,147 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,542,953 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,410,057,000 after buying an additional 1,548,671 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,469,906,000 after acquiring an additional 927,491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on META shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Susquehanna raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. JMP Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $496.35.

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.