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

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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reiterated by stock analysts at Benchmark in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $890.00 price objective on the social networking company's stock, up from their previous price objective of $800.00. Benchmark's target price indicates a potential upside of 18.67% from the company's current price.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $820.32.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.0%

NASDAQ:META opened at $750.01 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $450.80 and a one year high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $701.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $645.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.