Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives $650.05 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-three brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $654.20.

META has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $647.49 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $385.66 and a 1-year high of $652.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $601.93 and a 200-day moving average of $560.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,131 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $652,767.96. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,229 shares in the company, valued at approximately $709,329.64. The trade was a 47.92 % 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 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.