Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 0.4% on Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price was up 0.4% on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $647.00 to $652.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $576.74 and last traded at $575.21. Approximately 2,124,500 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 15,481,272 shares. The stock had previously closed at $572.81.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $570.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $598.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total transaction of $235,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 12,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,044,630. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total transaction of $235,410.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 12,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,044,630. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 8,727 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.87, for a total transaction of $4,615,448.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 178,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,191,218.13. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 308,462 shares of company stock valued at $162,308,065 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 95.6% during the first quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth $44,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4 %

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $521.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $501.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.23 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

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.