Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $700.00 at Susquehanna

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by equities research analysts at Susquehanna from $800.00 to $700.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "positive" rating on the social networking company's stock. Susquehanna's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 20.30% from the company's current price.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $690.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 6.0 %

Meta Platforms stock traded up $32.87 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $581.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,936,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,382,793. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $578.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $603.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $427.11 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $555.54, for a total value of $337,768.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 3,798 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,109,940.92. This trade represents a 13.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 249,071 shares of company stock valued at $175,741,082. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently 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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