Royal Bank of Canada Trims Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Target Price to $570.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price cut by Royal Bank of Canada from $600.00 to $570.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4 %

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

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given 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 Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.75% 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 the company. S.A. Mason LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $645,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 435 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. LongView Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 1,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $856,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Madison Wealth Partners Inc raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 1,417 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $502,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Meta Platforms

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.