BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price hoisted by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $530.00 to $610.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target indicates a potential downside of 11.49% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on META. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $689.18 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $613.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $565.78. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $387.10 and a 1-year high of $710.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $562.77, for a total value of $232,424.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,018,473.83. This represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 698,884 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in 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 worth $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.