Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Earns “Market Outperform” Rating from JMP Securities

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating reissued by research analysts at JMP Securities in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $750.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock. JMP Securities’ price objective points to a potential upside of 11.22% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Roth Mkm upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $674.33 on Monday. 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 cap of $1.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $387.10 and a 12-month high of $682.58. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $606.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $562.78.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,842,668.52. This represents a 3.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 602,612 shares of company stock valued at $368,414,542 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 35.1% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 27,272 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,751,000 after acquiring an additional 7,089 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,559,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 39.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 13,445 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,779,000 after purchasing an additional 3,799 shares in the last quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $7,115,000. Finally, Invst LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.1% in the second quarter. Invst LLC now owns 6,095 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,076,000 after buying an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.