Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Cantor Fitzgerald

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $790.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price suggests a potential upside of 48.60% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on META. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus set a $775.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $531.62 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $651.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $609.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $612.10, for a total transaction of $252,797.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,467,522.10. The trade was a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,060 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $3,727,550.20. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 5,139 shares in the company, valued at $3,785,747.13. The trade was a 49.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 549,113 shares of company stock valued at $364,668,246. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,198,005 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $111,948,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,553 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,181,127 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $28,719,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020,519 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 42,317,434 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,777,282,000 after buying an additional 1,049,121 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,317,105 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,606,338,000 after buying an additional 1,141,355 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $19,949,512,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.