Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Underperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating restated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on META. Barclays upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $627.00 to $525.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $676.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $533.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $590.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $604.75. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The stock has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total transaction of $39,897,337.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,727,550.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. This trade represents a 49.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 308,068 shares of company stock valued at $214,968,924. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after purchasing an additional 808 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $82,314,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,908,382,000 after acquiring an additional 110,040 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.