Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $685.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by Scotiabank from $675.00 to $685.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a sector perform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on META. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Meta Platforms from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $820.32.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $750.01 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $701.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $645.88. 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 has a 12 month low of $450.80 and a 12 month high of $784.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS 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 net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities 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 was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 465 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $723.08, for a total transaction of $336,232.20. Following the sale, the director owned 9,342 shares in the company, valued at $6,755,013.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $719.86, for a total transaction of $373,607.34. Following the sale, the insider owned 25,550 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,392,423. The trade was a 1.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 152,980 shares of company stock worth $105,708,832. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. 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.