Javier Olivan Sells 926 Shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total transaction of $590,056.46. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 16,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,267,364.73. This represents a 5.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Javier Olivan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 2nd, Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total value of $400,805.09.
• On Monday, February 23rd, Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total value of $410,535.72.
• On Monday, February 23rd, Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total value of $604,381.68.
• On Tuesday, February 17th, Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total value of $402,044.22.
• On Tuesday, February 17th, Javier Olivan sold 172 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total transaction of $109,938.96.
• On Sunday, February 15th, Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97.
• On Monday, February 9th, Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $663.19, for a total transaction of $342,869.23.
• On Monday, February 2nd, Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $714.60, for a total transaction of $369,448.20.
• On Monday, January 26th, Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $665.00, for a total transaction of $343,805.00.
• On Tuesday, January 20th, Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $608.35, for a total transaction of $314,516.95.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $660.41 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $655.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $682.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a multiyear AI content?licensing deal with News Corp that provides paid access to news content for training/retrieval — supports AI product quality and reduces legal/quality risk around training data. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Created a new applied AI engineering organization to speed model development and partner with its Superintelligence Lab — signals accelerated product rollout and continued R&D investment that can boost ad/product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group upgraded META from “hold” to “buy”, adding a positive analyst catalyst that can support demand in the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presentation at Morgan Stanley TMT conference provided additional management commentary and analyst color — useful for positioning but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating, offering little directional pressure today.
• Negative Sentiment: Under EU antitrust pressure, Meta will allow rival AI chatbots onto WhatsApp in Europe (via its Business API) for a fee for the next 12 months — a concession that reduces immediate regulatory risk but highlights EU scrutiny and could erode WhatsApp exclusivity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed this week — CFO Susan Li sold ~56,571 shares (~$36.5M) and COO Javier Olivan also sold shares — which can create headline pressure and short?term selling even if plan?driven. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure from Indonesia, which issued a “stern warning” over disinformation and gambling content and pressed for greater algorithm transparency — potential compliance costs or restrictions in a large market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Operational risks surfaced: recent U.S. user outages (short?term engagement/ad impression risk) and reports Meta scrapped its second?generation Olympus AI chip effort — the latter could raise execution risk and greater reliance on external GPU suppliers. Read More. • Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $850.00 target price (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after buying an additional 310,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,553,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,788,429,000 after buying an additional 823,883 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.