Wedbush Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $600.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. DA Davidson initiated coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. They set a buy rating and a $600.00 price objective on the stock. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a market perform rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $591.23.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $567.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $577.40. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $516.19 and its 200 day moving average is $499.63.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 21.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,285,234.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $509.10, for a total value of $8,502,988.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 186,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $95,113,116.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 325,656 shares of company stock worth $171,028,659. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vantage Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Vantage Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,323 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 45.7% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $815,000 after purchasing an additional 722 shares in the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 66.4% during the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,413,000 after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares during the period. Finally, Rollins Financial raised its position in Meta Platforms by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 30,657 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by 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.