Mizuho Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $650.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by Mizuho from $600.00 to $650.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $563.00 to $630.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $617.37.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.1 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $576.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $546.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $508.76. The company has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.11, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $602.95.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.23 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.97, for a total transaction of $533,922.85. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,292 shares in the company, valued at $19,641,281.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.97, for a total transaction of $533,922.85. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,292 shares in the company, valued at $19,641,281.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,508 shares in the company, valued at $311,493,681. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 250,816 shares of company stock worth $132,421,828 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Violich Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.1% in the third quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,810 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,181,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.7% in the third quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 1,112 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $637,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Calton & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1,006.0% in the third quarter. Calton & Associates Inc. now owns 15,240 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,724,000 after acquiring an additional 13,862 shares in the last quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. ACT Advisors LLC. now owns 1,025 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $587,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,544,231 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $883,979,000 after acquiring an additional 24,082 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.