Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives $719.26 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $719.26.

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $589.16, for a total value of $243,323.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,318,548.24. The trade was a 2.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 653,450 shares of company stock valued at $427,997,036. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of META opened at $604.90 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $414.50 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $657.51 and a 200 day moving average of $604.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

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.