Wedbush Has Bullish Estimate for Meta Platforms Q1 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Equities research analysts at Wedbush lifted their Q1 2025 EPS estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a report issued on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the social networking company will post earnings per share of $5.44 for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $5.30. Wedbush currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $680.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $22.68 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q3 2025 earnings at $5.95 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $7.44 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $24.36 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $27.48 EPS.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. DA Davidson started coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of META stock opened at $617.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $591.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $551.33. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $352.05 and a twelve month high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 11,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,744,844.39. This trade represents a 3.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 361,640 shares of company stock worth $219,037,690. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. 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.