Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $815.00 at Mizuho

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by Mizuho from $925.00 to $815.00 in a report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $860.00 to $808.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $827.60.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 11.3%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $666.47 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $740.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $695.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.69%. The firm had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $6.03 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $749.57, for a total transaction of $387,527.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,965,078.06. The trade was a 6.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.00, for a total transaction of $390,807.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 27,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,900,268. The trade was a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 198,335 shares of company stock worth $153,047,009. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in 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. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,212,506,000 after purchasing an additional 8,405,558 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $2,990,544,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares during the period. 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.