Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Stifel Nicolaus Analyst Says

Key Points

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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its target price boosted by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $845.00 to $900.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the social networking company's stock. Stifel Nicolaus' target price points to a potential upside of 19.14% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $740.00 to $840.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Roth Capital raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Needham & Company LLC raised Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Citizens Jmp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of META traded down $18.02 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $755.42. 8,418,796 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,580,731. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $450.80 and a 1 year high of $784.75. The firm's fifty day moving average is $699.22 and its 200-day moving average is $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. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 40.31% and a net margin of 39.99%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $46,181,574.40. This trade represents a 8.94% 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 valued at $105,708,832 in the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at $2,990,544,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,832 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.