Brokerages Set Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) PT at $634.10

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-three brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, thirty-five have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $634.10.

A number of analysts have recently commented on META shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.4 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $589.34 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $313.66 and a 1-year high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $560.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $515.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $507.63, for a total value of $459,405.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,817 shares in the company, valued at $19,197,043.71. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 228,118 shares of company stock worth $121,237,935 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 677,012 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $387,549,000 after purchasing an additional 51,222 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 117,516 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $67,271,000 after acquiring an additional 17,883 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 87,800 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $50,260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $17,121,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 33,648 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $19,261,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.