Raymond James Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $650.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by Raymond James from $600.00 to $650.00 in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a strong-buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a buy rating and a $780.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $563.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. DA Davidson began coverage on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. They issued a buy rating and a $600.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $609.71.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded up $1.26 on Thursday, reaching $585.09. 810,443 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,322,493. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $536.08 and a 200-day moving average of $504.92.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 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. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 10.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 129,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,238,845.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 129,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,238,845.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 33,018 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.94, for a total value of $17,101,342.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 252,443 shares of company stock worth $133,105,284. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.9% during the third quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 2,682 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,535,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Stonekeep Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stonekeep Investments LLC now owns 1,516 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $868,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 9,149 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,237,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 4,592 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,629,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 9,610 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,501,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.