Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 3.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price traded up 3.1% during trading on Thursday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $535.00 to $590.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $510.86 and last traded at $509.54. 5,337,613 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 16,917,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $494.17.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.53.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock valued at $684,796,490. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day moving average of $493.65 and a 200-day moving average of $396.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.42%.

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.