By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) had its target price raised by Robert W. Baird from $680.00 to $750.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.
Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.6 %
Meta Platforms stock opened at $687.00 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $710.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $611.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $564.44.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.
Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms
In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,510,470. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
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.
Further Reading
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