Piper Sandler Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $775.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price hoisted by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $670.00 to $775.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.45% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on META. Raymond James upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Arete Research raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $689.18 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $613.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $565.78. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $387.10 and a 52-week high of $710.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares in the company, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

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