Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 0.4% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded up 0.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $647.00 to $652.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $576.74 and last traded at $575.21. 2,124,500 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 15,481,272 shares. The stock had previously closed at $572.81.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $570.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $620.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $598.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 33,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,034,122.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,034,122.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.75, for a total transaction of $8,864,586.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 169,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $89,894,189. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 300,228 shares of company stock valued at $158,005,260 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after acquiring an additional 831,047 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased 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 valued at $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in 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 worth $16,799,612,000 after buying an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 24.7% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after acquiring an additional 2,748,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.1% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 11,497,335 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,582,876,000 after acquiring an additional 342,742 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $524.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $501.92. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

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.