Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 4.8% on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) traded down 4.8% on Tuesday after KeyCorp lowered their price target on the stock from $750.00 to $710.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as low as $575.79 and last traded at $575.84. 7,147,493 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average session volume of 13,591,418 shares. The stock had previously closed at $604.90.

META has been the topic of a number of other reports. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 price objective (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $718.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.76, for a total value of $535,542.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,477,780.40. This trade represents a 2.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. The trade was a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 632,023 shares of company stock worth $414,734,884. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. M1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,346,000. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,968,000. Chancellor Financial Group WB LP acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $796,000. Triton Wealth Management PLLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Triton Wealth Management PLLC now owns 3,007 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,712,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the period. Finally, 111 Capital acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,890,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.3 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $656.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $604.69. The company has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

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.