Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $650.00 at Morgan Stanley

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $615.00 to $650.00 in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $688.63.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.2 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $572.21 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $576.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $603.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $432.28 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 0.37%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.17, for a total value of $502,101.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,577 shares in the company, valued at $14,488,983.09. The trade was a 3.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.