Citigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Key Points

• Citigroup analysts raised the target price for Meta Platforms' stock from $803.00 to $915.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.23% from the previous close.
• Meta reported $7.14 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates of $5.75, with a revenue of $47.52 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 21.6%.
• Currently, Meta has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with 39 buy ratings and only 5 hold ratings.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Citigroup from $803.00 to $915.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the social networking company's stock. Citigroup's target price would indicate a potential upside of 20.93% from the stock's current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on META. DA Davidson cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $783.00 to $811.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded down $16.80 on Thursday, reaching $756.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,407,317 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,560,782. The company has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $450.80 and a twelve month high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. The business's fifty day moving average price is $699.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $644.61.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. The company's revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.16 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. This trade represents a 8.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 152,980 shares of company stock worth $105,708,832. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $129,666,000 after buying an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,624,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,243,603,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.