Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $631.48, but opened at $660.34. Meta Platforms shares last traded at $669.6030, with a volume of 10,369,805 shares traded.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP cut its price target to $800 from $825, but maintained a “market outperform” rating, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Read More
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s AI push remained a major catalyst, with reports that it will begin producing its in-house AI chip in September and launch more AI tools, including the Muse Spark 1.1 model and developer API access, which could lower costs and improve competitiveness. Article
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America reportedly highlighted Meta as one of its favorite stocks, reinforcing bullish Wall Street sentiment around the company’s earnings power and AI strategy. Article
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s planned $9.1 billion AI data center in Alberta and related energy agreements signal continued heavy investment in infrastructure, which bulls view as a long-term advantage in AI capacity and efficiency. Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary noted Meta is competing more directly with Alphabet, OpenAI, and Anthropic in AI, which underscores the opportunity but also highlights intense industry competition. Article
• Negative Sentiment: The European Commission escalated its probe into Meta’s Instagram and Facebook “addictive” design features, saying the company may be breaching EU digital rules and could face fines or product changes. Article
• Negative Sentiment: Additional reports about potential large EU penalties and a separate youth-safety backlash add to regulatory overhang for Meta and may keep pressure on the shares. Article

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on META. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $767.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $838.26.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 6.0%

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $598.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $626.80. The stock has a market cap of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.43 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. This represents a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 44,748 shares of company stock worth $27,565,292 over the last three months. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,608,445,000 after acquiring an additional 4,537,076 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Meta Platforms

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.