Citigroup Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $590.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective raised by Citigroup from $525.00 to $590.00 in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm reissued a buy rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $494.17 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $207.13 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $493.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $396.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total transaction of $7,513,615.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stone House Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 625.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.9% in the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. 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.