Pivotal Research Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Pivotal Research from $800.00 to $875.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company's stock.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Mizuho raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $703.38.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded up $10.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $687.00. The company had a trading volume of 29,271,983 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,711,077. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $710.79. The business's 50 day moving average price is $608.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $563.58. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a PE 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 (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors 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 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,414 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 661,312 shares of company stock valued at $407,377,422 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 valued at $5,447,975,000 after buying an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,126,190 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,066,437 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 890,434 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. 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.