Meta Platforms’ (META) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Cantor Fitzgerald

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $670.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 16.23% from the stock’s current price.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Pivotal Research started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $780.00 price target on the stock. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $613.71.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of META stock traded down $9.84 on Wednesday, hitting $576.43. The stock had a trading volume of 3,969,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,240,465. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.06, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $542.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $507.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,744,844.39. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total value of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,744,844.39. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.89, for a total value of $533,850.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,172,468.33. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 250,239 shares of company stock valued at $132,033,148 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bath Savings Trust Co bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter valued at approximately $218,000. jvl associates llc grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 6.9% in the first quarter. jvl associates llc now owns 777 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Emprise Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $1,801,000. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 13.8% in the first quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 15,055 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,830 shares during the period. Finally, Abner Herrman & Brock LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 39.2% in the first quarter. Abner Herrman & Brock LLC now owns 15,990 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,764,000 after purchasing an additional 4,499 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.