Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price rose 1% on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $660.00 to $725.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $611.52 and last traded at $603.34. Approximately 3,496,362 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 14,680,300 shares. The stock had previously closed at $597.19.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on META. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $638.00.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $311,054,400. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 10,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $569.93, for a total value of $5,699,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 328,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $187,314,333.66. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 287,879 shares of company stock valued at $174,127,704 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 364.1% during the second quarter. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 6,827 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,442,000 after purchasing an additional 5,356 shares during the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 3,889 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,961,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC now owns 3,377 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,703,000 after acquiring an additional 519 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 5,753 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. now owns 1,496 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $754,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50-day moving average of $585.66 and a 200-day moving average of $541.23. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 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.