Meta Platforms, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the social networking company on Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th.

Meta Platforms has a dividend payout ratio of 8.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $24.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.3%.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $500.27 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $544.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $505.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $494.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 21.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.18, for a total value of $8,404,112.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 301,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $151,697,700.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.18, for a total transaction of $8,404,112.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 301,478 shares in the company, valued at $151,697,700.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $536.92, for a total transaction of $221,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 14,424 shares in the company, valued at $7,744,534.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 390,977 shares of company stock worth $202,384,548 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $522.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $576.66.

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.