Monness Crespi & Hardt Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Monness Crespi & Hardt from $780.00 to $860.00 in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 14.67% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $845.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $820.32.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.0%

META stock opened at $750.01 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.27. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $450.80 and a 52 week high of $784.75. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $701.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $645.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 118,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.