Meta Platforms (META) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc., is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices. The company also offers advertising, analytics and business tools that help advertisers and developers reach and engage audiences across its platforms. On the hardware and platform side, Meta develops virtual reality headsets and software under the Meta Quest brand and invests in augmented and virtual reality systems, developer tools and content through its Reality Labs division.

Meta serves a global user base spanning many countries and regions and maintains operations, data centers and sales teams worldwide. The company has grown in part through notable acquisitions—such as Instagram and WhatsApp—and a 2012 initial public offering. Executive leadership is led by co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg. Meta continues to balance its established advertising-driven business with capital and research investments aimed at evolving next-generation computing and immersive experiences for consumers, creators and enterprises.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $600.36 to $614.35
• 50-Day Range: $525.72 to $688.55
• 52-Week Range: $520.26 to $796.25
• Volume: 17.07 million shs
• Average Volume: 16.51 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $1.53 trillion
• P/E Ratio: 21.99
• Dividend Yield: 0.35%
• Price Target: $840.31
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Meta Platforms Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Meta Platforms scored higher than 98% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 19th out of 624 stocks in the computer and technology sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.4 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Meta Platforms has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.89, and is based on 4 strong buy ratings, 34 buy ratings, 9 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Meta Platforms has a consensus price target of $840.31, representing about 38.9% upside from its current price of $604.96.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Meta Platforms has been the subject of 24 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 17.71%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Meta Platforms are expected to grow by 17.71% in the coming year, from $29.59 to $34.83 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Meta Platforms is 21.99, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.04.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Meta Platforms is 21.99, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Computer and Technology sector average P/E ratio of about 163.90.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Meta Platforms has a PEG Ratio of 1.07. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Meta Platforms has a P/B Ratio of 6.28. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.21% of the float of Meta Platforms has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Meta Platforms has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 1.64, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Meta Platforms has recently increased by 0.34%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

Dividend

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Weak

Dividend Yield

Meta Platforms has a dividend yield of 0.34%, which is in the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Meta Platforms has only been increasing its dividend for 1 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Meta Platforms is 7.63%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Meta Platforms will have a dividend payout ratio of 6.03% next year. This indicates that Meta Platforms will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.5 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.57

News Sentiment

Meta Platforms has a news sentiment score of 0.57. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This news sentiment score is similar to the average news sentiment of Computer and Technology companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 268 news articles for Meta Platforms this week, compared to 18 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

554 people have searched for META on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 51% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

430 people have added Meta Platforms to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 47% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Meta Platforms insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $106,697,681.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

13.61% of the stock of Meta Platforms is held by insiders. A high percentage of insider ownership can be a sign of company health.

Percentage Held by Institutions

79.91% of the stock of Meta Platforms is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

META Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have META shares performed this year?

Meta Platforms' stock was trading at $660.09 at the beginning of the year. Since then, META stock has decreased by 8.4% and is now trading at $604.96.

How were Meta Platforms' earnings last quarter?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April, 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The firm's revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Meta Platforms have any subsidiaries?

Meta Platforms subsidiaries include Kustomer, Lemnis Technologies, Mapillary, GIPHY, Sanzaru Games Inc, Scape Technologies, Packagd, and others.

When did Meta Platforms IPO?

Meta Platforms (META) raised $15.2 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on Friday, May 18th 2012. The company issued 421,233,615 shares at $34.00-$38.00 per share.

Who are Meta Platforms' major shareholders?

Top institutional investors of Meta Platforms include Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.56%), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. (0.20%), Principal Financial Group Inc. (0.16%) and Swedbank AB (0.12%). Insiders that own company stock include Sheryl Sandberg, Christopher K Cox, Nicholas Clegg, Jennifer Newstead, Peggy Alford, Robert M Kimmitt, Andrew Bosworth, Javier Olivan, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg and Susan J Li.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Meta Platforms?

Shares of META stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Meta Platforms own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Meta Platforms investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), Alibaba Group (BABA), Netflix (NFLX) and Salesforce (CRM).

Company Calendar

• Record date for 3/26 Dividend: 3/16/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 3/26 Dividend: 3/16/2026
• Dividend Payable: 3/26/2026
• Last Earnings: 4/29/2026
• Today: 5/05/2026
• AGM 2026: 5/27/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Computer and Technology
• Industry: INTERNET SOFTWARE
• Sub-Industry: Internet Software & Services
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:META
• Previous Symbol: NASDAQ:FB
• CIK: 1326801
• Web: www.facebook.com
• Phone: (650) 543-4800
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 78,865
• Year Founded: 2004

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Meta Platforms: $840.31
• High Price Target: $1,015.00
• Low Price Target: $700.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +38.9%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.89
• Research Coverage: 47 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $27.51
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 21.99
• Forward P/E Ratio: 20.44
• P/E Growth: 1.07
• Net Income: $60.46 billion
• Net Margins: 32.84%
• Pretax Margin: 41.54%
• Return on Equity: 36.93%
• Return on Assets: 23.09%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.24
• Current Ratio: 2.35
• Quick Ratio: 2.35

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $200.97 billion
• Price / Sales: 7.61
• Cash Flow: $37.23 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 16.25
• Book Value: $96.33 per share
• Price / Book: 6.28

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 2,529,550,000
• Free Float: 2,185,283,000
• Market Cap: $1.53 trillion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.25