Wedbush Has Bullish Forecast for Meta Platforms Q2 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Stock analysts at Wedbush boosted their Q2 2025 earnings estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a research note issued on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now anticipates that the social networking company will earn $5.53 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $5.42. 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.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on META. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. 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 note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.80.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.2 %

META opened at $610.72 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $355.36 and a 52 week high of $638.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.77, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $591.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $551.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2,000.0% during the third quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 105 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,644 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.55, for a total transaction of $10,320,386.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,769 shares in the company, valued at $25,888,979.95. This trade represents a 28.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.42, for a total value of $8,023,999.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 420,215 shares in the company, valued at $259,869,360.30. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 410,949 shares of company stock worth $249,265,810. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

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.