Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $875.00

Key Points

• TD Cowen raised its target price for Meta Platforms' stock from $800.00 to $875.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.04% from its current price and maintaining a "buy" rating.
• Several other analysts have issued positive ratings for Meta, with Sanford C. Bernstein increasing their target price to $900.00 and Pivotal Research raising theirs to $930.00.
• Meta Platforms recorded a significant earnings beat with $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, which surpassed analysts' expectations and showed a 21.6% year-over-year revenue growth.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) had its price objective increased by equities researchers at TD Cowen from $800.00 to $875.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the social networking company's stock. TD Cowen's price objective points to a potential upside of 15.64% from the stock's current price.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $845.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $815.09.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of META stock traded down $16.80 during trading on Thursday, reaching $756.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,407,317 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,560,782. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $699.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $644.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $450.80 and a one year high of $784.75.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 13,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $701.13, for a total transaction of $9,670,686.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 118,279 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $82,928,955.27. This trade represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 152,980 shares of company stock worth $105,708,832. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $129,666,000 after purchasing an additional 7,587 shares during the period. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,624,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.