Evercore ISI Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $600.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target lifted by Evercore ISI from $550.00 to $600.00 in a report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on META. Loop Capital reissued a buy rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $525.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an outperform rating and a $620.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $480.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded down $11.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $476.82. The company had a trading volume of 13,776,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,403,281. The company has a market capitalization of $1.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $274.38 and a 12-month high of $542.81. The company’s fifty day moving average is $494.09 and its 200-day moving average is $479.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $4,223,529.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 74,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,190,573. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total value of $50,054,550.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 630,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $300,466,976.03. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $4,223,529.35. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 74,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,190,573. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 310,685 shares of company stock worth $154,398,206 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after acquiring an additional 831,047 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after buying an additional 4,379,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.