Canaccord Genuity Group Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $575.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target cut by Canaccord Genuity Group from $610.00 to $575.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Canaccord Genuity Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 16.51% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $513.43.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $493.50 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $495.93 and a 200-day moving average of $403.14. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449 over the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. S.A. Mason LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised 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 worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the first quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 435 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. LongView Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during the first quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 1,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $856,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Madison Wealth Partners Inc grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 1,417 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $502,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.