Monness Crespi & Hardt Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt from $620.00 to $660.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 16.37% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on META. Raymond James boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $690.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $567.16 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a 50-day moving average of $555.99 and a 200-day moving average of $513.03. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $308.33 and a 1 year high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 36.26%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 21.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total value of $252,071.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,004 shares in the company, valued at $310,890,460.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $451.15, for a total value of $406,486.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,324 shares in the company, valued at $15,034,122.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 420 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.17, for a total transaction of $252,071.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 518,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $310,890,460.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 251,993 shares of company stock valued at $133,271,982. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,799,612,000 after buying an additional 4,379,826 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 24.7% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after acquiring an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 11,497,335 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,582,876,000 after acquiring an additional 342,742 shares in the last quarter. 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.