Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $725.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective reduced by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $810.00 to $725.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target suggests a potential upside of 23.72% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on META. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Arete Research upgraded Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of META stock opened at $586.00 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $653.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.68. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This represents a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 583,505 shares of company stock valued at $385,495,911. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,949,512,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,658,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,240,810 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,243,603,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,162,918,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.