Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 2.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) shot up 2.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $675.00 to $735.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $686.39 and last traded at $683.72. 5,620,623 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 14,454,978 shares. The stock had previously closed at $666.85.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on META. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $683.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $702.48.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 70,040 shares in the company, valued at $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.00, for a total transaction of $370,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 8,054 shares in the company, valued at $4,904,886. This represents a 7.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,652 shares of company stock worth $34,815,208 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $24,777,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $19,949,512,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The stock's 50 day moving average price is $583.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $613.00. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. The business's revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.