Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $750.00 Price Target at Mizuho

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective increased by Mizuho from $675.00 to $750.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $687.00 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $611.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $564.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $387.10 and a 1-year high of $710.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total value of $24,195,307.97. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total value of $602,730.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.