Wedbush restated their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in a report issued on Thursday morning,RTT News reports. They currently have a $770.00 price objective on the social networking company's stock, up from their prior price objective of $700.00.
A number of other analysts also recently commented on META. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $706.76.
Get Our Latest Report on META
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $10.51 on Thursday, reaching $687.00. 29,291,306 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,714,160. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $387.10 and a 1-year high of $710.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $608.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $563.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.
Insider Activity
In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total transaction of $234,410.54. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,294 shares in the company, valued at $5,842,668.52. This represents a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total transaction of $4,038,190.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. This trade represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 662,217 shares of company stock worth $407,980,152. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Seelaus Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $186,000 after buying an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. VeraBank N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. VeraBank N.A. now owns 1,954 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
About Meta Platforms
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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