Wedbush Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by research analysts at Wedbush from $770.00 to $680.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "outperform" rating on the social networking company's stock. Wedbush's price objective indicates a potential upside of 35.60% from the company's current price. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms' Q2 2025 earnings at $5.11 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $5.39 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $6.76 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $22.16 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $25.05 EPS.

Several other research firms have also commented on META. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $790.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $684.10.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META traded down $0.83 on Tuesday, reaching $501.48. 14,540,656 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,827,120. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 20.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $608.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $606.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 902 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $713.32, for a total value of $643,414.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,488 shares in the company, valued at $19,607,740.16. This trade represents a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 379,901 shares of company stock worth $260,806,516 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.