Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $555.00 by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $500.00 to $555.00 in a report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Wolfe Research upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $494.17 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $493.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $396.70.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total value of $217,910.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at $13,585,110. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 35,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,585,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490 over the last quarter. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after purchasing an additional 927,491 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,223,148,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.