Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $800.00 at Citizens Jmp

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by equities research analysts at Citizens Jmp from $825.00 to $800.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 26.69% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank raised Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Benchmark assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $850.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $838.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $631.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $598.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $626.80.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The business had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $6.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 29.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 44,748 shares of company stock valued at $27,565,292 over the last three months. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after buying an additional 4,537,076 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta said it plans to begin producing its in-house AI chip in September, a step that could reduce reliance on Nvidia and AMD, lower computing costs, and support its expanding AI infrastructure strategy. Reuters article on Meta AI chip production
• Positive Sentiment: The company also launched Muse Spark 1.1 and opened developer access to its Model API, signaling broader monetization potential in AI coding and agentic tools and reinforcing Meta’s push to compete more directly with OpenAI and Anthropic. Reuters article on Muse Spark 1.1
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s AI buildout includes a major new data center in Alberta, which should add long-term computing capacity to support AI training and inference across Facebook, Instagram, and future AI products. Reuters article on Alberta data center
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted Meta’s strong core advertising business and improving operating leverage, helping offset concerns that heavy AI spending will hurt profitability.
• Neutral Sentiment: Needham reaffirmed a Hold rating on META, reflecting a mixed near-term setup rather than a clear bearish thesis.
• Negative Sentiment: The EU accused Meta of breaching the Digital Services Act over Instagram and Facebook design features such as autoplay and infinite scroll, and warned that failure to change them could lead to heavy fines. Reuters article on EU breach notice
• Negative Sentiment: The regulatory action adds to investor concerns about Meta’s platform risk, especially given the possibility of penalties and forced product changes in Europe. CNBC article on EU breach

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.