Canaccord Genuity Group Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price increased by Canaccord Genuity Group from $825.00 to $850.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on META. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $750.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Roth Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $664.00 to $783.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $736.05.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $704.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 2.66. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $442.65 and a twelve month high of $747.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $686.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $637.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.11% and a return on equity of 38.69%. The company had revenue of $42.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total value of $14,296,645.65. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,183 shares in the company, valued at $753,393.55. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,874 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $659.36, for a total transaction of $4,532,440.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,181,574.40. The trade was a 8.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 153,764 shares of company stock worth $105,721,208 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $44,119,937,000 after acquiring an additional 59,766,000 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $2,990,544,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $2,243,603,000. 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.