Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 5.8% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) fell 5.8% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $587.44 and last traded at $589.58. 6,331,766 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 13,616,370 shares. The stock had previously closed at $625.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $719.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 4.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $656.91 and a 200-day moving average of $600.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total transaction of $243,323.08. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. This trade represents a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.00, for a total value of $593,124.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,860,580. This trade represents a 2.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 761,907 shares of company stock worth $496,008,888 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mattson Financial Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 45.0% in the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 10,761 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,160,000 after purchasing an additional 3,341 shares during the last quarter. Copia Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. IronOak Wealth LLC. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $3,500,000. Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $204,000. Finally, Arcadia Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $600,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.