Insider Selling: Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Sells $8,569,629.18 in Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.09, for a total transaction of $8,569,629.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 98,654 shares in the company, valued at $50,618,380.86. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Mark Zuckerberg also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, August 12th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $514.89, for a total value of $8,599,692.78.
• On Wednesday, August 14th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.51, for a total value of $8,827,174.02.
• On Wednesday, August 7th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 6,534 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total value of $3,299,931.36.
• On Friday, August 2nd, Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50.
• On Tuesday, July 16th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24.
• On Friday, July 12th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 14,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.38, for a total transaction of $7,487,274.12.
• On Monday, July 8th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.75, for a total transaction of $8,864,586.50.
• On Wednesday, July 10th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.87, for a total transaction of $8,916,696.74.
• On Friday, July 5th, Mark Zuckerberg sold 8,727 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.87, for a total value of $4,615,448.49.
• On Monday, July 1st, Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $503.08, for a total value of $8,402,442.16.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $526.76 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.68. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $542.81. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $498.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $485.97. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.26, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 24.7% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,733,731,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748,620 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $572.51.

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.