Meta Platforms’ (META) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $545.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $600.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 10.44% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on META. Bank of America lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $513.43.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $493.50 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $207.13 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50 day moving average is $495.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $403.14.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the third 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after buying an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after buying an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management raised its position in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.