Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the forty-four brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $710.00.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on META shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $740.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $695.77 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $612.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $621.89. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.87, for a total transaction of $453,012.27. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,498 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,525,441.26. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $614.97, for a total value of $373,901.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,838 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,205,164.86. The trade was a 8.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,512 shares of company stock worth $73,590,232 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $111,948,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,519 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $24,777,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $23,606,338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $19,949,512,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

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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