Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $810.00 at Barclays

Key Points

• Barclays has raised the price target for Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.03% from the current stock price.
• Other firms have also increased their price targets for Meta, with DA Davidson setting a target of $825.00 and Sanford C. Bernstein at $900.00, showcasing strong market confidence in the company.
• Meta reported an impressive earnings per share (EPS) of $7.14 for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations and reflecting a 21.6% year-over-year revenue growth.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price target upped by research analysts at Barclays from $640.00 to $810.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the social networking company's stock. Barclays's target price suggests a potential upside of 7.03% from the company's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on META. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $756.83 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $699.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $644.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $450.80 and a 52 week high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued 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 company had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 40.31%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.