TD Cowen Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $800.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target lifted by TD Cowen from $700.00 to $800.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 10.00% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on META. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $727.95.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $727.24 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a 50-day moving average of $672.36 and a 200-day moving average of $633.41. The firm has a market cap of $1.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm’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 owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 153,792 shares of company stock worth $105,466,325 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Suvretta Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 170,338 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $99,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares in the last quarter. Skye Global Management LP boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 130.9% during the 4th quarter. Skye Global Management LP now owns 76,200 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,616,000 after acquiring an additional 43,200 shares in the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 255.9% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 1,709,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,001,044,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229,350 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 25.1% during the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 368,499 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $215,760,000 after acquiring an additional 73,907 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arcadia Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $600,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.