Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 4.8% on Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares rose 4.8% during trading on Friday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $624.00 to $676.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $597.47 and last traded at $599.41. Approximately 9,440,482 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 34% from the average daily volume of 14,411,863 shares. The stock had previously closed at $572.21.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Raymond James cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $702.24, for a total transaction of $635,527.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 28,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,936,593.60. This represents a 3.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,719,970,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,519 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $19,949,512,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 4.3 %

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $575.29 and a 200-day moving average of $603.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.19%.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.