Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 1%

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) were up 1% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $510.00 and last traded at $508.08. Approximately 3,134,960 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 17,948,943 shares. The stock had previously closed at $503.02.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on META shares. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $527.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $496.35.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $464.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $375.30. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.00 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $513.32, for a total transaction of $251,526.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 10,029 shares in the company, valued at $5,148,086.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.32, for a total value of $251,526.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,148,086.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total value of $256,128.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 34,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,853,952. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,504,435 shares of company stock valued at $703,629,367 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 137.5% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,532,030 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,300,602,000 after acquiring an additional 2,623,447 shares in the last quarter. Signify Wealth acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Keel Point LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,008,000 after buying an additional 399 shares during the period. Finally, AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. now owns 4,149 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,246,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.