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

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.525 per share by the social networking company on Monday, September 28th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 21st.

Meta Platforms has a dividend payout ratio of 7.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Meta Platforms to earn $34.19 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 6.1%.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $644.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $790.80. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $600.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $608.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $7.14 EPS. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 28.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Key Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Muse creates a potential recurring-revenue stream. Meta’s new personal AI agent offers free access alongside $20 and $100 monthly plans. Muse reportedly became the No. 2 app in the U.S., suggesting strong early consumer interest and giving investors a clearer path to monetize Meta’s substantial AI spending. Meta’s AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded Meta to Overweight. The firm raised its price target to $820 from $640, citing Meta’s frontier AI models, agent strategy, and potential growth beyond advertising. Other analysts also remain bullish, with KeyBanc maintaining a $780 target. JPMorgan upgrades Meta on AI models and agents
• Positive Sentiment: Meta declared its quarterly dividend. The company will pay $0.525 per share on September 28 to shareholders of record on September 21. The roughly $2.10 annualized payout provides a modest shareholder return, although the approximately 0.3% yield is unlikely to materially drive the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure may become a new business opportunity. Meta’s large compute commitments could eventually support sales of AI capacity to outside customers, but this remains speculative and requires significant capital investment. Meta Might Be Building AWS For AI Compute
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending is pressuring cash flow and shareholder returns. Meta’s buybacks reportedly fell to zero in 2026 while stock-based compensation increased, contributing to a higher share count and potential earnings-per-share dilution. Dedicated computing for Muse could also weigh on margins before subscription revenue scales.
• Negative Sentiment: AI talent and internal-governance issues add execution risk. Star researcher Andrew Tulloch left for Anthropic, while an employee backlash reportedly halted a plan to collect workers’ screen data for AI training. These developments may raise questions about Meta’s ability to retain talent and manage privacy concerns. How Meta tried and failed to grab its employees’ data for AI
• Negative Sentiment: COO Javier Olivan sold shares. The transactions were conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing their significance as a bearish signal, but the sizable ownership reductions may still weigh marginally on sentiment.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc develops technologies that help people connect, communicate and build communities online. The company’s principal products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and digital communication.

Meta generates most of its business through advertising displayed across its family of apps. It also develops artificial intelligence technologies, business messaging tools and hardware and software through its Reality Labs division, including Quest virtual- and mixed-reality devices and related experiences.

The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and was renamed Meta Platforms in 2021 to reflect its broader focus on building the metaverse.