Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $665.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target boosted by Oppenheimer from $650.00 to $665.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.3 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $597.02 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $575.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $603.80. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-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.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $706.72, for a total value of $9,169,692.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,046 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $121,588,349.12. This represents a 7.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $960,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.