Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, thirty-eight have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $519.53.

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Guggenheim upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total value of $291,675.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.59, for a total transaction of $291,675.15. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,813 shares in the company, valued at $18,853,183.67. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 2,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $958,392.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,757,883.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock worth $677,574,550 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $66,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,244,201 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $499,020,000 after buying an additional 249,926 shares during the period. Ergoteles LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 284.0% in the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 3,356 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $746,000 after buying an additional 2,482 shares during the last quarter. First Western Trust Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $813,000. Finally, Oxford Financial Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.9% in the first quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. now owns 1,888 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $420,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $481.07 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $494.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $398.64. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

About Meta Platforms

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.