JPMorgan Chase & Co. Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $640.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target raised by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $610.00 to $640.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $562.00 to $643.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $591.23.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $567.36 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $516.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $499.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $577.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,315,852.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 16,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $509.10, for a total transaction of $8,502,988.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 186,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,113,116.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $2,663,825.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,315,852.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 342,358 shares of company stock worth $179,431,101 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 95.6% during the first quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.