Bank of America Has Lowered Expectations for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Key Points

• Bank of America cut its price target for Meta from $885 to $820 but kept a "buy" rating, implying roughly a 19% upside from current prices.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive with an average price target of $836.30 and most firms rating Meta a Buy or Strong Buy, while several brokers raised targets up to $920.
• Meta beat quarterly expectations with $8.88 EPS and revenue up 23.8% year-over-year, but insiders sold about 165,079 shares (~$105.6M) in the last quarter.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by analysts at Bank of America from $885.00 to $820.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the social networking company's stock. Bank of America's target price would suggest a potential upside of 19.09% from the company's current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $900.00 price target (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $836.30.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $688.55 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $627.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $650.79.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $8.02 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $667.00, for a total value of $386,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,565,949. This represents a 13.10% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 165,079 shares of company stock worth $105,624,755. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. RHL Group LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.