Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives $821.63 Average Price Target from Analysts

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifty ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirty-nine have given a buy recommendation and four have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $819.4565.

Several analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $920.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $837.00 to $802.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $915.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ:META opened at $649.50 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $662.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $707.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $6.03 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total value of $6,935,793.90. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,432,843.65. This trade represents a 82.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,306. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 41,555 shares of company stock valued at $26,144,862 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $64,158,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after purchasing an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,247,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $28,823,375,000 after purchasing an additional 278,180 shares during 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.