Meta Platforms’ (META) Buy Rating Reiterated at Guggenheim

Guggenheim reissued their buy rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $850.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $800.00 target price (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $837.09.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $675.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.31. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $520.26 and a 1 year high of $796.25. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $628.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $649.62.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $8.02 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 29.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 166,117 shares of company stock worth $106,367,778 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd increased its position in Meta Platforms by 294.7% during the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares during the period. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $322,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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: Meta signed a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement to deploy tens of millions of AWS Graviton5 cores to power its agentic AI workloads — investors view this as a scalable, cost-efficient way to boost AI capacity and cut future capex risk. Meta strikes deal with Amazon’s cloud unit to use its CPU chips
• Positive Sentiment: Management announced plans to cut ~10% of the workforce (~8,000 roles) and freeze hiring for ~6,000 openings to “run more efficiently” and offset AI investments — a move markets often reward when paired with heavy AI capex. Meta will cut 10% of workforce as it pushes more into AI
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and buy-side interest (price-target upgrades and bullish notes on AI-driven ad monetization) are reinforcing the upside narrative around revenue and margins. Guggenheim reaffirms buy and sets $850 target
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales by the COO were disclosed (executed under a Rule 10b5‑1 plan) — routine but noted by traders watching insider activity. SEC filing: Javier Olivan insider sales
• Negative Sentiment: Staff reactions describe weeks of limbo and morale damage (“28 days of hell”) ahead of the May cuts, raising execution and product-risk concerns if key teams are disrupted. Meta employees react to pending job cuts
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta is tracking employee keystrokes and web usage to train AI models raise privacy/ethical questions and potential regulatory scrutiny that could create reputational or legal costs. Meta is tracking employee usage for AI training
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing legal/ESG pressures (court rulings, shareholder proposals on human rights and AI energy/climate impacts) remain a medium-term headwind for sentiment and could spur additional disclosures or costs. Meta faces new ESG pressures

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.