Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Underperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Two 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $674.33 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.76, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $606.30 and a 200 day moving average of $562.78. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $682.58.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $559,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,663,600. This represents a 2.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total transaction of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 602,612 shares of company stock valued at $368,414,542 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 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.