Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price rose 1.1% during trading on Friday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $660.00 to $710.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $646.95 and last traded at $643.56. Approximately 6,968,757 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 44% from the average daily volume of 12,414,142 shares. The stock had previously closed at $636.45.

META has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $730.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 6,080 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,560,000 after purchasing an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC now owns 7,618 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,460,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $236,000. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,484 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $869,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 41.1% during the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 85,759 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $50,213,000 after acquiring an additional 24,961 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $600.06 and a 200 day moving average of $559.30. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

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.