Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives $650.05 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-three analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $652.98.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $641.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $623.50 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $598.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $558.76. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $382.08 and a twelve month high of $638.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total transaction of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 567,111 shares of company stock worth $345,453,784. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.