Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $525.00 by Analysts at Oppenheimer

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by Oppenheimer from $500.00 to $525.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on META. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $519.33.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.2 %

Meta Platforms stock opened at $487.40 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $493.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $473.07. The company has a market cap of $1.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $274.38 and a 52-week high of $542.81.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.21 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,067 shares in the company, valued at $16,819,124.11. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,268,235.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 310,933 shares of company stock valued at $154,451,206 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,597,382,000 after purchasing an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $11,285,855,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.