Morgan Stanley Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $660.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target increased by Morgan Stanley from $600.00 to $660.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Susquehanna upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective 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, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $650.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $608.33 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $594.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $554.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. 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 has a 12 month low of $358.61 and a 12 month high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total transaction of $22,746,973.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 423,427 shares of company stock worth $256,996,450. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 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.