Jefferies Financial Group Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $725.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $810.00 to $725.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 25.71% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on META. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $720.00 to $790.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Susquehanna increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two investment 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $576.74 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $655.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $609.90. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $414.50 and a 52 week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $614.97, for a total value of $373,901.76. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,205,164.86. The trade was a 8.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total transaction of $535,542.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at $19,477,780.40. This represents a 2.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 584,410 shares of company stock worth $386,031,454 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.