Scotiabank Initiates Coverage on Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Investment analysts at Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report issued on Friday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “sector perform” rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $660.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday. Finally, TD Securities lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Two equities research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $608.58.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1 %

META stock opened at $583.83 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $536.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $504.92. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

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 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 firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total value 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total value 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.89, for a total transaction of $533,850.45. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,197 shares in the company, valued at $20,172,468.33. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 252,443 shares of company stock worth $133,105,284 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $36,600,000 after purchasing an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,101,501 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,962,767,000 after buying an additional 748,076 shares in the last quarter. ERn Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 59.0% during the 1st quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 613 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.5% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $846,000 after buying an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lincoln National Corp lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 34,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,894,000 after buying an additional 2,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.