Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $600.00 by Analysts at Guggenheim

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target raised by Guggenheim from $500.00 to $600.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $570.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $562.00 to $643.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $488.14 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $494.09 and its 200 day moving average is $479.87. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $274.38 and a 1-year high of $542.81.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total transaction of $50,054,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 630,293 shares in the company, valued at $300,466,976.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Sheryl Sandberg sold 105,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $476.71, for a total transaction of $50,054,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 630,293 shares in the company, valued at $300,466,976.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 310,685 shares of company stock worth $154,398,206. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $11,285,855,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after buying an additional 4,908,251 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after buying an additional 4,440,229 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. 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.