Stifel Nicolaus Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) had its price target decreased by Stifel Nicolaus from $740.00 to $628.00 in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the social networking company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Needham & Company LLC reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given 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 price target of $679.02.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded up $14.12 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $547.27. 17,064,639 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,374,342. The stock has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $587.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $604.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 308,068 shares of company stock worth $214,968,924. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.