Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $770.00 by Analysts at Citizens Jmp

Key Points

• Citizens JMP cut Meta’s price target from $800 to $770 while maintaining a “market outperform” rating, implying roughly 43.8% upside from the reported share price.
• Meta shares fell 8.6% to $535.45 after quarterly EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.19 consensus, despite revenue rising 28% year over year to $60.8 billion.
• Investor concerns center on Meta’s planned $130 billion–$145 billion AI and infrastructure spending, declining free cash flow, below-consensus third-quarter guidance and uncertainty over the returns from its AI investments.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Citizens Jmp from $800.00 to $770.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "market outperform" rating on the social networking company's stock. Citizens Jmp's price target points to a potential upside of 43.81% from the stock's current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on META. Arete Research set a $735.00 target price on Meta Platforms and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and set a $725.00 price objective (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wedbush cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $780.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $805.32.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 8.6%

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $50.16 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $535.45. 16,405,348 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,694,275. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $603.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $624.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.14 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,325 shares of company stock worth $23,979,087 in the last three months. 13.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares during the period. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $322,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Second-quarter revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, exceeding the $60.2 billion consensus estimate. Advertising revenue, impressions and average price per ad also showed solid growth, while AI-powered personalization helped drive double-digit increases in Instagram usage. Meta Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts maintained bullish ratings following the selloff. Guggenheim reaffirmed a Buy rating with an $800 target, while Rosenblatt, KeyCorp, Bank of America and Monness Crespi & Hardt retained Buy or Overweight ratings despite reducing their targets. Analyst Price Target Updates
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s partnership with BlackRock to develop a $14 billion, one-gigawatt Texas data-center campus could shift part of its AI infrastructure burden to outside capital while preserving access to computing capacity. Meta is also exploring leasing excess compute to other AI companies, creating a potential new revenue stream. Meta and BlackRock Form AI Data Center Venture
• Neutral Sentiment: Management is positioning AI agents, enterprise services and smart glasses as future monetization opportunities, but investors are seeking clearer evidence that these initiatives will generate returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted earnings were $6.18 per share, well below the roughly $7.19 consensus and down from $7.14 a year earlier. Legal charges of about $2.4 billion and severance costs of approximately $1.2 billion contributed to the miss, although analysts argue underlying margins remained relatively strong. Meta Misses Profit Expectations
• Negative Sentiment: Meta plans to spend roughly $130 billion to $145 billion on AI and infrastructure this year. Capital expenditures consumed nearly all of its $31.9 billion in quarterly operating cash flow, causing free cash flow to plunge and intensifying concerns about margin pressure and uncertain AI returns. Meta’s AI Spending and Compute Strategy
• Negative Sentiment: Third-quarter revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion was below the $63.2 billion consensus midpoint expectations, adding to the market’s concern that spending is rising faster than near-term monetization. Reality Labs also reported a loss exceeding $4.6 billion, while India summoned Meta executives over a briefly restricted post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding a regulatory headline risk.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc NASDAQ: META, formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta's core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.

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