Meta Platforms’ (META) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $920.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on META. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $795.00 to $875.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $810.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $785.23 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.27. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $724.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $655.57.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company’s revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.16 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 7.60%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total transaction of $46,557,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 237,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $184,059,219.75. This represents a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 269,243 shares of company stock valued at $200,605,051 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 221,459 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $129,666,000 after buying an additional 7,587 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 6,189 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,624,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the period. Finally, Benchstone Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $23,749,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.