Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Underperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on META. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $576.66.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of META opened at $500.27 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $505.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $494.12. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $279.40 and a 1-year high of $544.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total value of $470,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,135,440. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total value of $470,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,135,440. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 390,977 shares of company stock valued at $202,384,548 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after buying an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.