Wedbush Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $920.00

Key Points

• Wedbush has raised its price target for Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $920.00 with an "outperform" rating, suggesting a potential upside of 17.80% from the previous close.
• Meta reported $7.14 earnings per share for Q2, exceeding estimates by $1.39, and achieved revenue of $47.52 billion, surpassing expectations of $44.55 billion.
• Insider trading has seen significant activity with major officers selling a total of 152,461 shares valued at over $105 million in the last quarter.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Wedbush from $750.00 to $920.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company's stock.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. 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 report on Monday, April 7th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $665.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2%

NASDAQ:META traded down $16.80 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $699.22 and a 200-day moving average of $644.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $450.80 and a 52-week high of $784.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. Meta Platforms's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $715.00, for a total value of $369,655.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 5,785 shares in the company, valued at $4,136,275. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total transaction of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.