Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $750.00 at Raymond James

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price dropped by equities research analysts at Raymond James from $800.00 to $750.00 in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a “strong-buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Raymond James’ target price points to a potential upside of 25.62% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.3 %

Shares of META stock opened at $597.02 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $442.65 and a one year 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 fifty day moving average price of $575.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $603.62. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total value of $453,012.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 27,498 shares in the company, valued at $13,525,441.26. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total transaction of $199,626.14. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,265,707.52. The trade was a 8.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors 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.