Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) PT Lowered to $500.00 at Guggenheim

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective decreased by stock analysts at Guggenheim from $520.00 to $500.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Guggenheim’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.46% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on META. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $545.00 target price (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 10.7 %

Meta Platforms stock traded down $52.80 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $440.70. The stock had a trading volume of 66,262,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,983,434. The stock has a market cap of $1.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.58, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $208.88 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $495.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $403.14.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.