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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $685.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

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Key Points

  • Scotiabank raised its target price for Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $685.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.45% from the current stock price and maintaining a "sector perform" rating.
  • Overall, the stock has received 39 "buy" ratings and only 5 "hold" ratings, with an average price target set at $811.31, showing strong analyst confidence.
  • In its latest quarterly report, Meta Platforms exceeded earnings expectations with $7.14 earnings per share and reported a revenue of $47.52 billion, reflecting a 21.6% year-over-year increase.
  • Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms.
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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) had its target price increased by Scotiabank from $675.00 to $685.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a sector perform rating on the social networking company's stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on META. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Securities reduced their price target 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 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $815.09.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on META

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.4%

NASDAQ META traded down $18.26 on Thursday, reaching $755.18. The stock had a trading volume of 9,094,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,585,335. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $699.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $644.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $450.80 and a 1 year high of $784.75. The company has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $719.86, for a total transaction of $373,607.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 25,550 shares in the company, valued at $18,392,423. This represents a 1.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 152,980 shares of company stock valued at $105,708,832 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake 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 during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased 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 buying an additional 1,049,121 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased 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 buying an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in 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 buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after buying an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Meta Platforms

(Get Free Report)

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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