Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 0.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $530.00 to $610.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $504.77 and last traded at $501.29. 3,042,017 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 17,052,457 shares. The stock had previously closed at $500.23.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.28.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,439,788 shares of company stock valued at $684,542,792. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.1 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $493.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $396.01.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

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.