Jennifer Newstead Sells 585 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

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

• On Tuesday, April 2nd, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $485.00, for a total transaction of $283,725.00.
• On Tuesday, March 26th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.29, for a total transaction of $295,594.65.
• On Tuesday, March 19th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.50, for a total transaction of $285,772.50.
• On Tuesday, March 12th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $493.75, for a total transaction of $288,843.75.
• On Tuesday, March 5th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $495.00, for a total transaction of $289,575.00.
• On Tuesday, February 27th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.00, for a total transaction of $280,800.00.
• On Tuesday, February 20th, Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.88, for a total transaction of $274,879.80.
• On Tuesday, February 6th, Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total transaction of $256,128.00.
• On Tuesday, January 30th, Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $404.00, for a total transaction of $228,664.00.
• On Tuesday, January 23rd, Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of META opened at $511.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.36, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $491.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $391.91. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $207.13 and a twelve month high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.03 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 13.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $502.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after acquiring an additional 927,491 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $4,223,148,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.