Why Meta Platforms Stock Only Bumped Slightly Higher on Friday
Key Points
The social media titan kept its dividend level.
This was encouraging, but it shouldn't be anyone's primary reason to buy the stock.
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) ended the week with a small but encouraging piece of good news. This concerned the company's quarterly dividend, which it's been doling out since early 2024. Investors like consistency, particularly in the frequently volatile and disruptive tech sector. Meta's stock closed the day up by 0.6%.
Going steady
Well, after market close on Thursday, Meta said its board of directors declared a new quarterly payout of just under $0.53 per share of its Class A and Class B common stock (of the two, Class A is the one that is publicly traded).
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The dividend is to be paid on Monday, Sept. 28, to stockholders of record as of Sept. 21. At the most recent closing price, it would yield 0.3%.
Meta has paid a quarterly distribution in every quarter since March 2024, when it initiated the payout at $0.50 per share. Since then, it has only been raised once, with the March 2025 lift to the current level.
Better reasons to buy
With that wafer-thin yield, we can confidently say that few investors buy and hold Meta stock for the dividend. So ultimately it's more of a morale booster than anything; still, if I were a shareholder, I'd be pleased that the company is at least providing a few coins from its vast free cash flow.
With that, I'd say an investment in Meta should be far more heavily weighed toward the company's growth potential. This remains considerable given the size and reach of its Facebook in particular, which, after many years, remains an irresistibly attractive platform for any kind of advertiser.
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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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