Meta Platforms’ (META) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Benchmark

Benchmark reissued their hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report report published on Monday, Benzinga reports.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $410.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $441.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.62, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $208.88 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $495.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $403.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stone House Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 625.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 68.9% in the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 65.2% in the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 109 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clear Investment Research LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 411.1% in the 4th quarter. Clear Investment Research LLC now owns 92 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.