Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 3.3% After Analyst Downgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s share price traded down 3.3% on Monday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $740.00 to $628.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as low as $482.98 and last traded at $485.04. 4,577,688 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 14,747,772 shares. The stock had previously closed at $501.48.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $676.55.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This trade represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total transaction of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 343,068 shares of company stock worth $237,676,335 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $866,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $594.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $605.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.78%.

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.