Meta Stock Pays March Dividend as Shares Drop 7.9%

TLDR

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Meta Platforms paid a quarterly dividend of $0.5250 per share on March 26.
The company set March 16 as the ex-dividend date for the recent payout.
Meta stock closed at $547.75 after falling 7.92% in one trading session.
The next dividend is scheduled for June 25 with June 15 as the ex-dividend date.
Mark Zuckerberg received nearly $180 million from the latest dividend payment.

Meta Platforms issued its latest quarterly dividend on March 26 and paid $0.5250 per share to holders. The company set March 16 as the ex-dividend date for the payout. The payment marked the first dividend distribution of 2026 for shareholders.

Meta Stock Dividend Details and Shareholder Payouts

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) distributed $0.5250 per share on March 26 to eligible investors. The company maintained its annual yield at 0.38% based on recent share prices. It confirmed that shareholders who bought shares by March 16 qualified for the payment.

Meta Platforms, Inc., META

Meta scheduled its next dividend for June 25 and set June 15 as the ex-dividend date. The company expects to pay about $0.52 per share in June. It projects total dividend payments for 2026 to exceed $2.08 per share.

An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Meta stock in March secured about 1.82 shares. Based on the quarterly rate, that investor will receive roughly $0.95 in the next payout. Meta stock traded at $547.75 at the March 26 close.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg owns about 342 million shares of the company. Therefore, he received nearly $180 million from the March 26 dividend. The payment reflects his current ownership stake in the company.

Meta offers a lower yield than several established dividend stocks. For example, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) provides a 2.84% annual yield. Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) offers a 5.17% yield.

However, Meta’s payout aligns more closely with other large technology firms. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) offers about a 0.30% dividend yield. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) provides a yield of 0.023%.

Court Ruling and Market Reaction Impact Meta Stock

Meta stock declined sharply on March 26 following a court verdict in Los Angeles. The shares closed at $547.75 after ending March 25 at $594.89. The drop represented a 7.92% decrease in one trading session.

A Los Angeles jury found Meta Platforms and Google liable for harm to a young user. The case also involved YouTube, which Google operates. The jury ordered the companies to pay $6 million in damages.

Plaintiffs argued that the platforms used practices designed to make their systems addictive. The jury agreed with the claims presented during the trial. The court entered the $6 million award against the companies.

Meta has not announced changes to its dividend policy following the verdict. The company continues to maintain its quarterly payout schedule. The next dividend remains set for June 25, with June 15 as the ex-dividend date.

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