Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 2.5% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Meta Platforms' stock rose by 2.5% following an upgrade by Barclays, which increased the price target from $640 to $810.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Meta Platforms recently, with the consensus price target now at $820.32 and 39 analysts rating it as a buy.
• Insider trading revealed that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CFO Susan Li sold significant amounts of stock, collectively totaling over $14 million, representing decreases in their ownership positions.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 2.5% during mid-day trading on Monday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $640.00 to $810.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $767.25 and last traded at $768.53. 5,541,666 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 15,584,562 shares. The stock had previously closed at $750.01.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on META. Loop Capital increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $695.00 to $888.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $700.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. KeyCorp increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $905.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $860.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $820.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total value of $9,670,686.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total value of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 152,372 shares of company stock worth $105,348,896 in the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position 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. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 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.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average of $701.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $646.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 7.60%.

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.

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