Sanford C. Bernstein Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $675.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lifted by Sanford C. Bernstein from $600.00 to $675.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Pivotal Research assumed 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 for the company. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $647.00 to $652.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $621.63.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $573.25 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $551.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $510.65. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $279.40 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly 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 during 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 revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 21.44 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares in the company, valued at $6,315,852.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,387 shares in the company, valued at $18,612,808.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 250,817 shares of company stock worth $132,547,715 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Central Valley Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the third quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,271,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the period. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the third quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,787 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.0% in the third quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 1,906 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 3,560 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,038,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.