Oppenheimer Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price increased by Oppenheimer from $665.00 to $775.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on META. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Roth Capital raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $740.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $706.88.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $702.12 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $607.90 and a 200-day moving average of $620.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.26. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $442.65 and a 52-week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 1,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,802 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.96, for a total transaction of $5,476,691.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,550,434.92. This represents a 6.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 84,672 shares of company stock valued at $55,455,647 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $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.