Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report issued on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $570.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on META. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $522.00 to $555.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META traded down $12.41 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $475.73. The company had a trading volume of 21,166,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,452,877. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $274.38 and a twelve month high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $494.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $479.87.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $190,756.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,817. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The disclosure for this trade can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 310,685 shares of company stock valued at $154,398,206. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in 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 period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,285,855,000. Hedge funds and other 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.