Oppenheimer Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by equities researchers at Oppenheimer from $650.00 to $800.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 16.08% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on META. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have given 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 target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.3 %

META stock opened at $689.18 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $387.10 and a twelve month high of $710.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.35 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. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $613.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $565.78.

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total transaction of $511,497.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,581 shares in the company, valued at $17,360,833.70. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after buying an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $5,447,975,000 after buying an additional 9,500,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $4,101,602,000 after buying an additional 186,728 shares during the period. 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.