Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 4.8% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) shot up 4.8% on Friday after Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on the stock from $624.00 to $676.00. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $597.47 and last traded at $599.41. 9,440,482 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 34% from the average session volume of 14,411,863 shares. The stock had previously closed at $572.21.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on META. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Roth Capital boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $696.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 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 $6,300,738.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $706.72, for a total transaction of $9,169,692.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,046 shares in the company, valued at approximately $121,588,349.12. This represents a 7.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 222,724 shares of company stock worth $157,259,224. Insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.58, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $573.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $604.15.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

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.