Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective raised by equities research analysts at Wedbush from $640.00 to $680.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 9.32% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on META. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.9 %

Meta Platforms stock traded up $17.37 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $622.00. 4,595,037 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,281,196. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $352.05 and a 1 year high of $638.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $589.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $549.56.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.89, for a total transaction of $533,850.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,197 shares in the company, valued at $20,172,468.33. This represents a 2.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 326,624 shares of company stock worth $197,875,975 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Boltwood Capital Management lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 4,245 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,485,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 50,766 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $29,724,000 after purchasing an additional 1,099 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 15,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,075,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,114,906 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,249,931,000 after buying an additional 206,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 13,850 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,109,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.