Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 2.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares shot up 2.2% during trading on Friday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $600.00 to $675.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $580.56 and last traded at $580.07. 3,321,073 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 15,039,857 shares. The stock had previously closed at $567.78.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on META. Needham & Company LLC reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Roth Mkm raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $621.63.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.48, for a total value of $214,849.76. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,684,057.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $521.48, for a total value of $214,849.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,684,057.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total value of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 32,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,612,808.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 250,817 shares of company stock worth $132,547,715 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $36,600,000 after purchasing an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 14.0% in the first quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,101,501 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,962,767,000 after acquiring an additional 748,076 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 26.5% during the second quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.8% during the first quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 34,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,894,000 after acquiring an additional 2,504 shares during the period. Finally, BCGM Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the first quarter. BCGM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,311 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $637,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $551.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $510.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 10.21%.

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.