DA Davidson Forecasts Meta Platforms Q1 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Research analysts at DA Davidson issued their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a report released on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson analyst G. Luria expects that the social networking company will earn $5.45 per share for the quarter. DA Davidson currently has a “Buy” rating and a $800.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $25.44 per share.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.33 earnings per share.

META has been the subject of several other research reports. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $736.00 to $786.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

META opened at $689.18 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $613.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $566.31. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $387.10 and a 1-year high of $710.79. The company has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,510,470. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. This trade represents a 15.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.

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.