Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $1.27 EPS

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27, Zacks reports. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. Meta Platforms updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $13.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $700.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,640,861 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,265,275. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $387.10 and a 12-month high of $710.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $611.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $564.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $2,918,698.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 8,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,943,375.40. The trade was a 37.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at $17,360,833.70. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on META. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

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.