Raymond James Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price lifted by stock analysts at Raymond James from $675.00 to $725.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “strong-buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Raymond James’ target price points to a potential upside of 17.35% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on META. Barclays increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Hsbc Global Res raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Pivotal Research increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $651.27.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock traded up $5.02 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $617.79. The company had a trading volume of 4,120,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,440,146. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $597.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $557.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $381.16 and a 52 week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The business had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. The trade was a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $652,767.96. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,229 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $709,329.64. This trade represents a 47.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 495,269 shares of company stock worth $300,888,396 in the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after acquiring an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after acquiring an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after acquiring an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after acquiring an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after acquiring an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is 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.