Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 1.5% – Here’s Why

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price dropped 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $653.34 and last traded at $656.96. Approximately 12,156,674 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average daily volume of 15,535,175 shares. The stock had previously closed at $666.80.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Arete upgraded Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $718.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $915.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Benchmark cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $819.43.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.5%

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $671.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $707.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total transaction of $333,312.18. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,734 shares in the company, valued at $19,737,989.48. This represents a 1.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total transaction of $6,935,793.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,432,843.65. The trade was a 82.88% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 40,923 shares of company stock valued at $25,887,293 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.