Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 1.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $650.00 to $750.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $717.00 and last traded at $713.06. 3,467,205 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 14,294,245 shares. The stock had previously closed at $704.28.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on META. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $828.00 target price (up from $807.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Pivotal Research cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight 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 an average price target of $738.37.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.50, for a total transaction of $370,947.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 6,819 shares in the company, valued at $4,892,632.50. This trade represents a 7.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 152,437 shares of company stock worth $105,068,570. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after acquiring an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $2,990,544,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.81, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $686.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $638.61.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.

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.