Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $500.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target decreased by Guggenheim from $520.00 to $500.00 in a report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the subject of several other reports. Benchmark reiterated a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $494.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $405.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $229.85 and a 12-month high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock valued at $620,679,759. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after acquiring an additional 4,908,251 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.