Investors Buy Large Volume of Meta Platforms Call Options (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 495,861 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 6% compared to the average daily volume of 466,793 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on META. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Roth Capital increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $696.45.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.17, for a total value of $502,101.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,577 shares in the company, valued at $14,488,983.09. This represents a 3.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.3 %

META opened at $597.02 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $575.29 and a 200 day moving average of $603.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. 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 presently 8.19%.

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.