Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Piper Sandler Analyst Says

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $650.00 to $670.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.20% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $635.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of META opened at $613.57 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.90, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $580.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $534.10. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $319.99 and a 12 month high of $629.79.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.57, for a total transaction of $214,995.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 13,185 shares in the company, valued at $6,863,715.45. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $50,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at approximately $311,054,400. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 164,201 shares of company stock worth $95,420,559. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $589,000. FFG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the third quarter. FFG Partners LLC now owns 14,750 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,444,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $220,000. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $408,000. Finally, Oriental Harbor Investment Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $95,734,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.