Needham & Company LLC reiterated their underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports.
Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $654.20.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.2 %
NASDAQ:META traded up $14.45 on Monday, hitting $674.33. 20,910,905 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,580,293. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $604.04 and a 200-day moving average of $561.55. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms
In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total transaction of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 603,032 shares of company stock valued at $368,666,614. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.
Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after buying an additional 4,126,190 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 87,269.8% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 1,067,659 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $625,125,000 after buying an additional 1,066,437 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $520,662,000 after buying an additional 890,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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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