Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Evercore ISI Analyst Says

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target raised by stock analysts at Evercore ISI from $725.00 to $750.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 25.62% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $786.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.3 %

META stock opened at $597.02 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $575.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $603.62. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $676.00, for a total value of $279,188.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,443,524. The trade was a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.17, for a total value of $502,101.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,488,983.09. This represents a 3.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after buying an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. Hedge funds and other 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.