Guggenheim Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $675.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price dropped by analysts at Guggenheim from $750.00 to $675.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Guggenheim’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 15.23% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on META. DA Davidson upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $708.55.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 14.8 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $585.77 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $634.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $609.40. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $606.77, for a total value of $250,596.01. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 16,688 shares in the company, valued at $10,125,777.76. The trade was a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.41, for a total value of $7,984,944.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 381,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,649,678.90. This represents a 3.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 499,507 shares of company stock valued at $334,165,387. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,517,178,000 after buying an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after buying an additional 6,240,810 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,727,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.