Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 0% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price traded up 0% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $645.00 to $935.00. Tigress Financial currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $718.47 and last traded at $717.76. 3,389,246 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 15,414,232 shares. The stock had previously closed at $717.40.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on META. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $721.69, for a total transaction of $14,194,198.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $702.24, for a total transaction of $635,527.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 28,390 shares in the company, valued at $19,936,593.60. The trade was a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 812,198 shares of company stock worth $515,102,208 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 716,847 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $410,352,000 after buying an additional 14,754 shares during the period. Ullmann Wealth Partners Group LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.9% in the third quarter. Ullmann Wealth Partners Group LLC now owns 2,128 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,218,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Keystone Wealth Services LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 27.2% in the third quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 2,162 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the period. Finally, Corepath Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $225,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $634.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $579.77.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

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.