Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 4.8% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 4.8% on Friday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $624.00 to $676.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $597.47 and last traded at $599.41. Approximately 9,440,482 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 34% from the average daily volume of 14,411,863 shares. The stock had previously closed at $572.21.

META has been the subject of a number of other reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. TD Securities cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $752.00 to $664.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $696.45.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Valley Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,743,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $960,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $575.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $603.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.78%.

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.