Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-four research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $511.88.

A number of research firms have recently commented on META. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,058 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $2,386,617.30. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,272,152.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total transaction of $50,054,550.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 630,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $300,466,976.03. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,058 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $2,386,617.30. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at $7,272,152.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 260,047 shares of company stock worth $127,838,805 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $529.32 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $274.38 and a 12 month high of $542.81. The firm has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s 50 day moving average is $486.29 and its 200-day moving average is $462.92.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.15 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 11.49%.

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.