Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $770.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) had its price target raised by Truist Financial from $700.00 to $770.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company's stock.

META has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $820.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two investment 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. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

META traded up $10.51 on Thursday, reaching $687.00. 29,291,306 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,714,160. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $387.10 and a twelve month high of $710.79. The company's 50 day moving average is $608.52 and its 200-day moving average is $563.58.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,510,470. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 662,217 shares of company stock valued at $407,980,152 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Opes Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 8,235 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $4,822,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 3,703 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,167 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,440,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copperleaf Capital LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Copperleaf Capital LLC now owns 4,406 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,580,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

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.