Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $650.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price target upped by Morgan Stanley from $615.00 to $650.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the social networking company's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target indicates a potential upside of 8.87% from the company's current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $624.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $688.63.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META traded up $24.81 during trading on Thursday, reaching $597.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 24,702,127 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,463,489. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $442.65 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $575.29 and a 200-day moving average of $603.62. 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 (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, beating the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.71 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $676.00, for a total transaction of $279,188.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,449 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,443,524. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.23, for a total transaction of $9,033,584.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 197,996 shares in the company, valued at approximately $137,850,755.08. The trade was a 6.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 237,017 shares of company stock worth $167,207,524 in the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is 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.