Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading Up 0.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price was up 0.6% during trading on Friday after Roth Mkm raised their price target on the stock from $550.00 to $620.00. Roth Mkm currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $588.34 and last traded at $587.10. Approximately 1,918,677 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 15,328,119 shares. The stock had previously closed at $583.83.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on META. Pivotal Research started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $780.00 target price for the company. Tigress Financial upped their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $609.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total value of $859,886.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 129,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,238,845.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1,712 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $502.27, for a total transaction of $859,886.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 129,888 shares in the company, valued at $65,238,845.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.42, for a total value of $453,785.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,068,669.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 252,443 shares of company stock worth $133,105,284. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,597,382,000 after purchasing an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after purchasing an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 11,497,335 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,582,876,000 after purchasing an additional 342,742 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.0 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $538.12 and a 200-day moving average of $505.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 21.37 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

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.