Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 1.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1.6% during trading on Wednesday after TD Cowen raised their price target on the stock from $700.00 to $800.00. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $736.65 and last traded at $732.48. Approximately 4,647,678 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 15,867,658 shares. The stock had previously closed at $720.67.

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Several other analysts have also weighed in on META. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $808.00 price objective (up from $650.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $615.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $727.95.

View Our Latest Report on META

Insider Activity

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In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $740.97, for a total value of $383,081.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 7,853 shares in the company, valued at $5,818,837.41. This represents a 6.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $716.48, for a total value of $1,691,609.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 152,756 shares of company stock worth $104,720,878. Insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 572 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.5%

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The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 2.66. The company has a fifty day moving average of $665.58 and a 200-day moving average of $631.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 39.11%. The business had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.19%.

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.

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