Traders Buy High Volume of Meta Platforms Call Options (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 402,968 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 16% compared to the typical volume of 346,216 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $700.00 price target (up previously from $680.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday. JMP Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two equities 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total value of $524,990.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 31,482 shares in the company, valued at $18,262,708.20. This represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Equity Partners increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1,917.7% during the 4th quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 5,367 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,142,000 after buying an additional 5,101 shares during the last quarter. Avantra Family Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $1,142,000. Berry Wealth Group LP increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Berry Wealth Group LP now owns 1,492 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $874,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 73,812 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $43,218,000 after purchasing an additional 7,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverstone Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverstone Advisors LLC now owns 1,018 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.1 %

META traded up $13.65 during trading on Friday, hitting $650.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,577,729 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,639,161. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $600.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $559.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.63, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $385.66 and a twelve month high of $649.62.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

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.