Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms Buy Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $910.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 38.14% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $870.00 price objective (down from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $840.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, DA Davidson set a $825.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $818.57.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $658.76 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $642.15 and a 200-day moving average of $697.15. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.03 EPS. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $658.69, for a total transaction of $341,860.11. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 28,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,876,738.02. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.28, for a total value of $358,602.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,587 shares in the company, valued at $3,454,330.36. The trade was a 9.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 40,632 shares of company stock worth $25,055,572. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $44,000. 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: 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.