Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 0.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $645.00 to $705.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $573.25 and last traded at $569.27. 5,986,531 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 15,112,900 shares. The stock had previously closed at $567.58.

META has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $647.00 to $652.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $620.00 price target on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total transaction of $252,071.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,890,460.68. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 251,993 shares of company stock valued at $133,271,982. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Leeward Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $286,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $74,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC now owns 3,382 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,642,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the period. E&G Advisors LP raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. E&G Advisors LP now owns 7,138 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,466,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the period. Finally, OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth approximately $276,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $555.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $513.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 36.26%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.