Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $790.00 target price on the social networking company's stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $718.55.

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Meta Platforms Trading Down 9.0 %

NASDAQ:META traded down $52.31 on Wednesday, hitting $531.62. The stock had a trading volume of 34,640,728 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,380,193. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $653.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.50. The stock has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.22, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total value of $252,797.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,101 shares in the company, valued at $10,467,522.10. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.55, for a total transaction of $571,552.75. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,010 shares in the company, valued at $20,215,915.50. The trade was a 2.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 584,113 shares of company stock worth $385,838,234. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.