Stifel Nicolaus Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $785.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target dropped by investment analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $875.00 to $785.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target suggests a potential upside of 19.16% from the company’s current price.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Arete Research set a $718.00 target price on Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $910.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $818.57.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $658.76 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $642.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $696.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.29.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The business had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.03 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $4,190,037.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 88,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,857,980.20. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total value of $1,590,690.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,962,956.64. This trade represents a 21.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 40,632 shares of company stock worth $25,055,572 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,247,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,823,375,000 after acquiring an additional 278,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Threads ad rollout expands immediate ad-monetization optionality for a 400M+ MAU product, supporting near-term revenue upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors point to attractive valuation after the pullback (multiple firms reiterating buys and high price targets), encouraging value-oriented buying. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational/tech progress: Meta’s AI lab reportedly delivered its first in-house models, a signal that internal AI capability is advancing and could support future product monetization and efficiency gains. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Hardware/metaverse upside: TD Cowen raised its PT and Meta plans to ramp Meta Glasses production, which supports longer-term diversification of revenue streams. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta suspended teen access to its AI characters globally while it builds a teen-specific version — a precautionary move that reduces regulatory/PR risk but could slow feature engagement and short-term monetization from those users. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming earnings (Jan. 28) and especially 2026 CapEx guidance are the primary near-term catalysts — strong revenue/AI updates could lift shares, while higher-than-expected CapEx would likely pressure the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: COO Javier Oliván’s routine share sales continue to be disclosed; amounts are modest relative to his holdings and the company, so impact is limited. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: UK regulator Ofcom opened an investigation into Meta’s responsiveness on WhatsApp data requests, increasing compliance uncertainty in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk: Meta is contesting evidence limits ahead of a New Mexico child-safety trial — unfavorable rulings or negative publicity could weigh on sentiment. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst pressure: Some firms have trimmed price targets (Stifel cut its PT; UBS trimmed earlier), reflecting sensitivity to guidance and spending — these moves can cap near-term upside if guidance disappoints. Read More.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.