Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $645.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at Tigress Financial from $575.00 to $645.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “strong-buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Tigress Financial’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 22.34% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased 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. Bank of America lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $625.00 to $647.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $574.41.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock traded down $10.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $527.23. 6,494,364 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,307,933. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $542.81. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $499.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $486.33.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total transaction of $194,752.40. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $514.89, for a total value of $8,599,692.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 89,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,302,513.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,268,235.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 349,174 shares of company stock worth $175,146,777 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,285,855,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th 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 period. Concentrum Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after buying an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 24.7% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,733,731,000 after buying an additional 2,748,620 shares in the last quarter. 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.