Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given "Buy" Rating at Rosenblatt Securities

Key Points

• Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “Buy” rating on Meta Platforms and set an $886 price target, implying 25.6% upside from the previous close. Analysts overall rate the stock “Moderate Buy,” with an average target of $811.24.
• Meta’s latest quarter showed 28% year-over-year revenue growth to $60.8 billion, exceeding estimates, although earnings per share of $6.18 missed the $7.19 consensus forecast.
• Institutional investors own 79.91% of Meta’s shares, while insiders have sold approximately $101.2 million worth of stock over the past 90 days, including sales by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Javier Olivan.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reiterated by research analysts at Rosenblatt Securities in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $886.00 target price on the social networking company's stock. Rosenblatt Securities' target price would suggest a potential upside of 25.60% from the company's previous close.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on META. Evercore increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $860.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $945.00 price target (down from $995.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $796.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $730.00 to $830.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $580.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $811.24.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $705.44 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $657.99 and a 200-day moving average of $627.42. The company has a market cap of $1.80 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $779.82.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.14 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 28.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 946 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $728.10, for a total value of $688,782.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,932 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,047,189.20. This represents a 12.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 27,474 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $777.44, for a total transaction of $21,359,386.56. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 148,331 shares of company stock valued at $101,233,569. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 723.1% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 8,801,764 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $4,957,946,000 after acquiring an additional 7,732,446 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $2,948,486,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 92,033,963 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $51,841,811,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510,123 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,038,035 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $12,036,491,000 after acquiring an additional 2,673,494 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 11,858,972 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $6,784,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815,017 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Early adoption of Meta’s Muse personal assistant is attracting investor interest. Analysts see Meta’s large user base as a significant advantage for eventually monetizing AI through advertising, commerce and agent-based services. Should You Buy Meta Stock Before the Huge Investor Update?
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains a key bullish argument. Strong ad growth and improved distribution scale have led some investors to view the stock as attractively valued relative to peers, while upcoming results could demonstrate whether AI is improving ad targeting and engagement. Accelerating Ad Business and Distribution Scale Create Compelling Value at Meta Platforms
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors will focus on quarterly revenue, advertising impressions and pricing, user trends, 2027 capital-expenditure guidance, and management’s explanation of how Muse and other AI projects will become meaningful businesses. Meta and Tesla’s reports are also viewed as an important test of broader confidence in the AI investment cycle. Meta's AI spending, Muse assistant adoption in focus for quarterly results
• Negative Sentiment: Rising AI infrastructure spending, elevated valuation and possible margin compression are weighing on sentiment, particularly after recent weakness in semiconductor and other AI stocks. Investors want evidence that Meta’s spending will translate into earnings rather than remain a cost burden. Should You Buy, Sell, or Hold META Stock Before Q3 Earnings Release?
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy and regulatory concerns remain an additional risk as Meta and other companies deploy always-listening AI devices. Separately, Meta apologized after suspending the “No Kings” Instagram account, highlighting ongoing content-moderation and reputational issues. Always on, always listening: New AI devices are pushing legal limits

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc is a technology company that develops social networking, messaging, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence products. The company's principal platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Threads, which enable users to connect, communicate, share content, and discover products and services.

Meta also operates Reality Labs, its division focused on virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies. Reality Labs develops products such as Meta Quest virtual reality headsets and related software and experiences, along with research and hardware intended to support immersive computing.