Wedbush Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Wedbush boosted their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for Meta Platforms in a research note issued on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the social networking company will earn $5.44 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $5.30. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $680.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $22.68 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q3 2025 earnings at $5.95 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $7.44 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $24.36 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $27.48 EPS.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion.

META has been the subject of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $670.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.0 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $617.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $352.05 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $591.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $551.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Range Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 215.6% during the 4th quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 4,649 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,722,000 after purchasing an additional 3,176 shares in the last quarter. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,672,000. Norway Savings Bank boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 3,826 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,240,000 after buying an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $94,000. Finally, Bath Savings Trust Co increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co now owns 488 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $584.83, for a total transaction of $241,534.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,533 shares in the company, valued at $6,744,844.39. This represents a 3.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 361,640 shares of company stock valued at $219,037,690. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend 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.