Why Meta Stock Should Pay a Dividend

Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has a cash problem. It wrapped up its fourth quarter with nearly $41 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. Subtracting its long-term debt of nearly $10 billion gives the company a net cash position of about $31 billion when including cash equivalents and marketable securities.

Further, this pile of cash can grow quickly if the company doesn't find prudent ways to spend it. The tech company's average annual free cash flow over the last two years was more than $28 billion.

With both a strong cash balance and impressive free cash flow, it's no surprise that the company recently announced a massive increase to its share-repurchase program. But is management making a mistake by not paying a dividend with some of the excess cash it is using for repurchases?

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Source Fool.com