Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $670.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $650.00 to $670.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.20% from the stock’s current price.

META has been the subject of several other research reports. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $635.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.6 %

META opened at $613.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $580.47 and a 200 day moving average of $534.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $319.99 and a 12 month high of $629.79. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total transaction of $14,268,740.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $595.00, for a total value of $538,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,738,325. The trade was a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 164,201 shares of company stock worth $95,420,559 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.