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

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of 0.525 per share by the social networking company on Thursday, March 26th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th.

Meta Platforms has a payout ratio of 7.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $30.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.0%.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of META opened at $642.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $658.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $693.94. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.50.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.