Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $575.00 at UBS Group

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target trimmed by UBS Group from $610.00 to $575.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on META. Susquehanna increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $229.85 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The firm 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. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $494.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $405.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for 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%. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $404.00, for a total value of $228,664.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,720 shares in the company, valued at $14,026,880. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,277,048 shares of company stock valued at $620,679,759 over the last quarter. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management raised its position in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.