Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Down 4.8% After Analyst Downgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price was down 4.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after KeyCorp lowered their price target on the stock from $750.00 to $710.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as low as $575.79 and last traded at $575.84. Approximately 7,147,493 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 13,591,418 shares. The stock had previously closed at $604.90.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 10,100 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.54, for a total value of $6,075,554.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 653,450 shares of company stock worth $427,997,036. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Valley Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $657.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $604.41. The company has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.17, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.