Meta Platforms' (META) "Overweight" Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reissued by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $808.00 price target on the social networking company's stock, up from their prior price target of $650.00. Piper Sandler's target price suggests a potential upside of 10.54% from the company's current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Pivotal Research lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $830.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $740.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $846.00 to $918.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $719.52.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of META traded up $4.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $730.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,189,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,477,081. The company has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a fifty day moving average of $633.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $625.73. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.71 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $704.89, for a total transaction of $365,837.91. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 28,145 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,839,129.05. This trade represents a 1.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $710.24, for a total value of $9,796,340.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 57,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,862,237.92. This trade represents a 19.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 124,831 shares of company stock valued at $83,868,872. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at about $46,266,000. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 1,094 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 3,620,086 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,085,387,000 after purchasing an additional 107,959 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the first quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 75,532 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $43,533,000 after buying an additional 3,787 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the first quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 1,832 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,056,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. 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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