Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $525.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective trimmed by Scotiabank from $627.00 to $525.00 in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on META. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $624.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $681.67.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.4 %

META stock opened at $484.66 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $603.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $606.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $627.59, for a total value of $259,194.67. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,954,832.58. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 378,583 shares of company stock valued at $259,991,992. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. 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.