Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $850.00 at Morgan Stanley

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has raised its price target for Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $850.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.27% from the stock's previous close.
• Meta Platforms reported earnings of $7.14 per share for the last quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate of $5.75 and showing a 21.6% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• Insider trading activity includes significant sales by company directors, with total insider sales reaching $105 million over the last 90 days.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price target hoisted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $750.00 to $850.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the social networking company's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target points to a potential upside of 13.33% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on META. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $845.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $705.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $700.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $820.32.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of META traded down $23.43 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $750.01. 18,985,910 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,038,546. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The company has a market cap of $1.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. The firm's 50 day moving average is $701.68 and its 200-day moving average is $646.12. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $450.80 and a 52 week high of $784.75.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $44.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.16 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 stock was 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 approximately $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 152,980 shares of company stock worth $105,708,832 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted 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 valued at $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th 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. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

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.