Bank of America Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target boosted by Bank of America from $690.00 to $765.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $752.00 to $664.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Roth Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $676.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued 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.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $704.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1%

META stock opened at $693.36 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $442.65 and a 52 week high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $600.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $618.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company 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%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total value of $199,626.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,265,707.52. The trade was a 8.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 1,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 86,201 shares of company stock worth $56,377,837. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $33,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 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.