Truist Financial Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $550.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lifted by Truist Financial from $525.00 to $550.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on META. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Mizuho boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $481.07 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $207.13 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $494.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $398.64.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 172,981 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $84,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072 shares during the period. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,158 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,932,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 238.5% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 5,050 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,452,000 after acquiring an additional 3,558 shares during the period. Mezzasalma Advisors LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Mezzasalma Advisors LLC now owns 38,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,728,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN increased its position in Meta Platforms by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 1,057 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. 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.