Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $590.00 by Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price hoisted by Stifel Nicolaus from $550.00 to $590.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $475.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a market perform rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ META opened at $488.14 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $542.81. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $494.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $479.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $268,606.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $268,606.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,135 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $535,549.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,130,103.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 310,685 shares of company stock valued at $154,398,206. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 24.2% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 835,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $295,901,000 after acquiring an additional 163,067 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,576,285 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,265,862,000 after acquiring an additional 51,900 shares in the last quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 94.4% during the 4th quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 8,349 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 4,054 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voyager Global Management LP grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. Voyager Global Management LP now owns 515,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $182,289,000 after acquiring an additional 140,000 shares in 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.