Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $900.00 Price Target at Raymond James Financial

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by Raymond James Financial from $750.00 to $900.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a strong-buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $812.00 to $897.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Loop Capital boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Citizens Jmp boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $811.31.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $773.44 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $699.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $644.61. The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $450.80 and a one year high of $784.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.16 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $715.00, for a total transaction of $369,655.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 5,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,136,275. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position 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. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after acquiring an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787,832 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.