Raymond James Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $750.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Raymond James from $800.00 to $750.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a "strong-buy" rating on the social networking company's stock. Raymond James' target price would indicate a potential upside of 36.61% from the stock's current price.

META has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $692.37.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $549.00 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $578.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $603.67. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $427.11 and a 12-month high of $740.91.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total value of $199,626.14. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at $2,265,707.52. This represents a 8.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total value of $9,035,660.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 210,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $146,918,094.69. This represents a 5.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 249,071 shares of company stock valued at $175,741,082 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Valley Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during 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.

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