Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 0.5% – Should You Sell?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) dropped 0.5% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $575.17 and last traded at $581.93. Approximately 3,459,256 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 15,038,128 shares. The stock had previously closed at $584.82.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $652.00 to $641.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.19, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $567.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $519.13.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,493,681. This represents a 0.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total transaction of $459,405.15. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,197,043.71. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 158,200 shares of company stock worth $84,533,106 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $26,163,000. Paradigm Capital Management LLC NV purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $581,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $136,000. B&L Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,214,000. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $195,717,000. 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.