Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Sells $255,234.00 in Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $255,234.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 stock was 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 stock was sold at an average price of $590.00, for a total transaction 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 stock was sold at an average price of $623.50, for a total transaction of $257,505.50.
• On Monday, December 2nd, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.49, for a total transaction of $238,503.37.
• On Monday, November 25th, Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded up $12.95 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $636.45. 9,888,335 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,819,214. The company has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $598.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $558.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $385.66 and a 52 week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares in the last quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 55.9% during the second quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 1,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $819,000 after buying an additional 582 shares during the last quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. grew its position 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 worth $45,410,000 after purchasing an additional 5,250 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Meta Platforms by 4.2% during the second quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 111,306 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $56,123,000 after buying an additional 4,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 384 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

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.