Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Earns Strong-Buy Rating from Raymond James

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “strong-buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Raymond James in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $800.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $725.00. Raymond James’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 16.03% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on META. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $730.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $673.43.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $689.47 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $694.66. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $608.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $563.58. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total transaction of $234,410.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 10,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,842,668.52. This trade represents a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 661,312 shares of company stock valued at $407,377,422. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Creekside Partners acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $327,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $213,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 20,112 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,141,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 75.1% during the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 23,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $11,720,000 after acquiring an additional 9,972 shares during the period. Finally, Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,925,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.