Insider Selling: Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Sells 413 Shares of Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $255,234.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,057,950. The trade was a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Javier Olivan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, January 13th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total value of $250,596.01.
• On Monday, January 6th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total value of $252,797.30.
• On Monday, December 30th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08.
• On Monday, December 23rd, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total value of $243,670.00.
• On Monday, December 16th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.56, for a total value of $260,008.28.
• On Monday, December 9th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total value of $257,505.50.
• On Monday, December 2nd, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total value of $238,503.37.
• On Monday, November 25th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01.
• On Monday, November 18th, Javier Olivan sold 620 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $345,340.00.
• On Friday, November 15th, Javier Olivan sold 4,891 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $2,822,889.56.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of META opened at $647.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $601.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $560.33. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $385.66 and a twelve month high of $652.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,751,000 after purchasing an additional 7,089 shares in the last quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 55.9% in the 2nd quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 1,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $819,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 90,060 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $45,410,000 after purchasing an additional 5,250 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 111,306 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $56,123,000 after purchasing an additional 4,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.4% during the second quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,056,000 after acquiring an additional 384 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.