Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives $574.41 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-eight research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, thirty-two have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $574.41.

META has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $480.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 1st.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $518.22 on Friday. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $544.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $504.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $492.38. The company has a market capitalization of $1.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.77, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,975 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $516.36, for a total transaction of $4,117,971.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 531,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $274,643,622.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,975 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $516.36, for a total transaction of $4,117,971.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 531,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $274,643,622.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $536.92, for a total transaction of $221,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 14,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,744,534.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 388,078 shares of company stock worth $200,792,168. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Clear Investment Research LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 411.1% in the 4th quarter. Clear Investment Research LLC now owns 92 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 527.3% during the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.