Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Rating Increased to Buy at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $820.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on META. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $687.00 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $387.10 and a twelve month high of $710.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $611.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $564.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total transaction of $232,424.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,579 shares in the company, valued at $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total value of $511,497.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock worth $407,745,741 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.