Cantor Fitzgerald Predicts Meta Platforms FY2025 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald upped their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst D. Mathivanan now expects that the social networking company will post earnings per share of $24.69 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $24.45. Cantor Fitzgerald has a “Overweight” rating and a $790.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $26.70 per share. Cantor Fitzgerald also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ FY2025 earnings at $24.69 EPS.

META has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 5.1 %

META opened at $504.73 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.10, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $648.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $610.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after buying an additional 110,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $563.03, for a total value of $342,322.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,230 shares in the company, valued at $3,507,676.90. This represents a 8.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 549,113 shares of company stock worth $364,668,246. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

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.