Robert W. Baird Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price lifted by investment analysts at Robert W. Baird from $680.00 to $750.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price suggests a potential upside of 8.82% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $700.00 price target (up previously from $680.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Two investment 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $689.18 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $613.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $565.78. The stock has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $710.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at $17,360,833.70. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was 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. Insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 over the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,266,531,000 after buying an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after buying an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.