Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Arete Research

Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $1,015.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Benchmark started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.60.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:META opened at $597.63 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $617.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $636.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.43 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $608.98, for a total transaction of $509,716.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,823 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,417,930.54. The trade was a 5.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $681,890.56. The trade was a 65.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 40,890 shares of company stock worth $25,315,558 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. RHL Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with analysts including RBC reiterating an outperform view and setting a higher price target, suggesting investors still see meaningful upside in Meta’s core ad and AI businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: A new study ranked Meta among the top S&P 500 companies adopting AI, reinforcing the market’s view that AI remains a key long-term growth driver for the company.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta also announced broader teen-safety controls and new Instagram features aimed at safer, more age-appropriate feeds, which may help ease concerns around user safety and regulation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles highlighted Meta as a long-term growth or value stock, reflecting continued investor interest but not a clear near-term catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta is dialing back its plan to collect employee mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes for AI training after staff pushback, underscoring internal resistance to how aggressively the company is pursuing AI data collection. Exclusive: Meta scales back AI mouse clicks tool, citing employee concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Hackers reportedly tricked Meta’s AI chatbot into helping them access Instagram accounts, raising fresh concerns about product security and trust in Meta’s AI systems. They tricked Meta’s chatbot to hack into Instagram accounts. It’s a warning about how much we trust AI.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta continues to face regulatory and legal pressure over scam ads and child-safety issues, including coordinated European complaints and a proposed group legal action in the UK, which could add compliance costs and reputational risk.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.