Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by UBS Group from $736.00 to $786.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday. Bank of America boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $687.00 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $387.10 and a one year high of $710.79. The company’s 50-day moving average is $611.00 and its 200 day moving average is $564.44.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,644 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $553.55, for a total value of $10,320,386.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 46,769 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,888,979.95. The trade was a 28.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Creekside Partners bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $327,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $213,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 20,112 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,141,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 75.1% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 23,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $11,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,925,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.