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

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at KeyCorp from $645.00 to $655.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has an "overweight" rating on the social networking company's stock. KeyCorp's target price points to a potential upside of 19.31% from the stock's current price.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on META. Barclays upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $692.37.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $549.00 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $427.11 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $578.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $603.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. Meta Platforms's revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.71 EPS. Research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total value of $9,035,660.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 210,971 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $146,918,094.69. This represents a 5.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total value of $296,813.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This trade represents a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 249,071 shares of company stock valued at $175,741,082. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in 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 worth $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,658,713,000 after purchasing an additional 6,240,810 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.

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