Cantor Fitzgerald Comments on Meta Platforms FY2024 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald cut their FY2024 EPS estimates for Meta Platforms in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst D. Mathivanan now forecasts that the social networking company will post earnings of $22.67 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $22.70. Cantor Fitzgerald has a “Overweight” rating and a $720.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $22.96 per share. Cantor Fitzgerald also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ FY2025 earnings at $25.20 EPS.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Roth Mkm increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JMP Securities raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $647.49 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $385.66 and a 52 week high of $652.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $601.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $560.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total value of $524,990.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 31,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,262,708.20. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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