Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.53

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.525 per share by the social networking company on Wednesday, March 26th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

Meta Platforms has a dividend payout ratio of 7.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $30.19 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 6.6%.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META traded up $8.11 on Monday, reaching $736.67. The stock had a trading volume of 16,880,644 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,161,075. 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 company has a market cap of $1.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $638.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $584.28. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at $11,018,473.83. The trade was a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total value of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,362,687. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 751,033 shares of company stock worth $480,911,671. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $717.90.

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.