Roth Capital Has Positive View of Meta Platforms Q2 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Research analysts at Roth Capital boosted their Q2 2026 earnings per share estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 30th. Roth Capital analyst R. Kulkarni now anticipates that the social networking company will earn $6.32 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $6.06. Roth Capital has a “Buy” rating and a $620.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $26.70 per share. Roth Capital also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q3 2026 earnings at $6.48 EPS and Q4 2026 earnings at $8.50 EPS.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on META. Guggenheim raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. TD Securities cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.3 %

NASDAQ META opened at $597.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $575.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $603.80.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $706.72, for a total transaction of $9,169,692.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,046 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $121,588,349.12. This trade represents a 7.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares in the company, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 237,017 shares of company stock worth $167,207,524 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 255.9% in the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,001,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229,350 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.