Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) PT Raised to $610.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective raised by UBS Group from $530.00 to $610.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Guggenheim upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JMP Securities upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $481.07 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $494.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $398.64. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total transaction of $7,722,037.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total transaction of $7,722,037.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total value of $291,675.15. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,469,906,000 after purchasing an additional 927,491 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,223,148,000. 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.