Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 1.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) rose 1.6% during trading on Wednesday after TD Cowen raised their price target on the stock from $700.00 to $800.00. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $736.65 and last traded at $732.48. Approximately 4,647,678 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 15,867,658 shares. The stock had previously closed at $720.67.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on META. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $727.95.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. This trade represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 153,273 shares of company stock valued at $105,091,830 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $669.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $632.53. The company has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

About Meta Platforms

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.