UBS Group Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $610.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target raised by UBS Group from $530.00 to $610.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on META. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $501.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.68, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $207.13 and a one year high of $531.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $494.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $397.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total value of $7,722,037.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 16.0% in the first quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 1,606 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $780,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,840 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,634,000 after purchasing an additional 1,624 shares during the period. Saxon Interests Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Saxon Interests Inc. now owns 5,409 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,627,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Naviter Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 50.9% during the 1st quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 8,952 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,347,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Myecfo LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. Myecfo LLC now owns 993 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $482,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by 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.