Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $545.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $600.00.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Susquehanna increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Mizuho increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $229.85 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $494.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $404.85.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total value of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 37,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. 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.