Meta Platforms' (META) "Buy" Rating Reiterated at Loop Capital

Key Points

• Loop Capital raised its price target for Meta Platforms to $980.00, indicating a potential upside of 28.24% from its previous close, and maintaining a "buy" rating.
• Meta Platforms' stock recently fell 1.6% to $764.22, despite beating earnings expectations with a reported $7.14 EPS against a consensus estimate of $5.75.
• Analysts have diverse ratings for the stock, with thirty-nine issuing a "buy" rating, four rating it as a "hold," and three giving it a "strong buy" rating, resulting in an average price target of $822.41.

Loop Capital reiterated their buy rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $980.00 target price on the social networking company's stock, up from their prior target price of $888.00.

META has been the subject of several other reports. Benchmark boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $828.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of META stock traded up $2.01 on Tuesday, hitting $763.84. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,025,447 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,456,868. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $784.75. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $711.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $649.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. The business's revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.16 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $768.67, for a total value of $12,181,113.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 515 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $776.38, for a total transaction of $399,835.70. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 25,035 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,436,673.30. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 260,024 shares of company stock valued at $188,466,159. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the 2nd 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. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

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.