Piper Sandler Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $880.00

Key Points

Error: Response status code does not indicate success: 429 (Too Many Requests).

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $808.00 to $880.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the social networking company's stock. Piper Sandler's price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.53% from the stock's previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on META. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and set a $800.00 target price (up from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $783.00 to $811.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META traded down $18.30 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $755.14. 8,418,796 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,580,731. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $699.22 and a 200-day moving average of $644.61. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $450.80 and a one year high of $784.75. The firm has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares in the company, valued at $46,181,574.40. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at $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 a total of 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $28,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $33,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. 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.