Wells Fargo & Company Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $835.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $767.00 to $835.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 33.14% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Mizuho dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $835.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $865.00 to $766.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $835.64.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.6%

META opened at $627.17 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $605.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $626.29. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $520.26 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $6.43 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 30.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 37,948 shares of company stock worth $23,184,319 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Intergy Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.8% in the second quarter. Intergy Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,423 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 23,553 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,267,000 after buying an additional 322 shares during the period. 4WEALTH Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 27.1% during the 2nd quarter. 4WEALTH Advisors Inc. now owns 2,603 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,464,000 after acquiring an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 1,493 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $841,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC now owns 43,780 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $24,661,000 after acquiring an additional 381 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: A Florida teen dropped his lawsuit against Meta over alleged social-media addiction harms ahead of trial, reducing legal overhang and removing a potential headline risk for the company.
• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies said Meta’s AI glasses could become a long-term hardware growth driver, noting strong early product reception and Meta’s first-mover advantage in shipping AI glasses at scale.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple reports highlighted strong demand for AI infrastructure led by Meta, including record hyperscaler leasing and speculation around a large compute deal with Anthropic, reinforcing confidence in Meta’s AI spending strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo and Rothschild & Co Redburn both raised price targets on Meta, signaling that some Wall Street analysts remain constructive on the stock’s longer-term upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta continues to face mixed sentiment around its AI push, including scrutiny over heavy capital spending and broader concerns about big-tech debt and future infrastructure commitments.
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary comparing Meta with other Magnificent 7 names suggests investors are watching upcoming earnings closely for signs that the company can re-accelerate enthusiasm around the stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts cited by Zacks warned Meta may report weaker earnings growth in its upcoming results, which could weigh on sentiment if the company disappoints expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Several articles continued to focus on regulatory and legal risks tied to social-media harms, including criticism of Meta’s platforms and broader scrutiny of addictive features.

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.