Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given “Strong-Buy” Rating at Raymond James

Raymond James reissued their strong-buy rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $675.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on META. Truist Financial increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $569.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $574.75 and a 200-day moving average of $526.33. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $313.66 and a 52-week high of $602.95. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.62 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $565.30, for a total transaction of $511,596.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,790 shares in the company, valued at $21,362,687. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $215,586.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 13,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,098,156. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 106,239 shares of company stock worth $59,681,541. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the 3rd 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. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 61,769.3% in the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 4,132,870 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,365,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,190 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $595,152,000. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4,658.5% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,548 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $520,662,000 after buying an additional 890,434 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 698,884 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.