KeyCorp Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $540.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by KeyCorp from $475.00 to $540.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. KeyCorp’s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.11% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $545.00 price target (down from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $565.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.05.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $499.49 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $274.38 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $479.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $445.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 77,412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $506.92, for a total transaction of $39,241,691.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 391,071 shares of company stock valued at $192,834,857. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chelsea Counsel Co. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $194,000. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the first quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,352 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $656,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Jackson Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter valued at about $599,000. American Trust increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. American Trust now owns 3,179 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,544,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OMC Financial Services LTD acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth approximately $4,355,000. 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.