Wolfe Research Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by equities research analysts at Wolfe Research from $850.00 to $800.00 in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Wolfe Research’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 27.02% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $872.00 price target (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $856.00 to $765.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $838.04.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $629.83 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $628.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $654.03.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 160,931 shares of company stock worth $102,997,526. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. RHL Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Muse Spark launch strengthens Meta’s AI narrative — investors see the new LLM as evidence Meta can compete with other big‑model providers and begin monetizing AI via commerce, APIs and ad tools; early analyst support and bullish writeups helped lift shares. Meta’s AI Outlook Brightens With Muse Spark Release
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded $21B CoreWeave deal gives Meta committed AI compute capacity through 2032 — reduces operational risk of running large models, signals scale and continuity for AI roadmaps (though it implies heavy future spending). CoreWeave signs $21 billion AI cloud deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is improving — CFRA upgraded Meta to Strong Buy and some firms remain constructive on share recovery tied to AI gains, helping sentiment. CFRA Just Upgraded Meta to Strong Buy. The AI Turnaround Story Is Getting Hard to Argue With
• Neutral Sentiment: Street price targets and ratings are mixed — some firms trimmed targets while keeping outperform/buy ratings, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI upside but concern over valuation and spend. (See recent Wolfe/KeyCorp/Rosenblatt notes.)
• Negative Sentiment: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Meta must face a state lawsuit alleging features were designed to addict teens — the decision increases legal and regulatory risk and could widen damages exposure if similar suits progress. Meta must face youth addiction lawsuit by Massachusetts, court rules
• Negative Sentiment: Meta pulled ads recruiting potential plaintiffs for social‑media addiction suits — a defensive PR/legal move that underscores ongoing litigation pressure and recent adverse jury outcomes. Meta pulls ads aimed at recruiting plaintiffs for social media addiction lawsuits

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.