Insider Selling: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) CAO Sells 726 Shares of Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,570,306. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded down $1.10 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $589.22. The company had a trading volume of 20,484,471 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,436,927. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $704.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $705.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on META shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Citizens Jmp raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $1,086.00 to $1,117.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $825.05.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 137.2% during the first quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC now owns 1,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $673,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Smart Money Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 20.4% in the first quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 2,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mystic Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 37.9% in the first quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,329 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,411,000 after buying an additional 4,492 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.