Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $560.00 at KeyCorp

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by KeyCorp from $540.00 to $560.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. TD Securities raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective 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 upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $480.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $12.41 on Thursday, reaching $475.73. 21,166,439 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,452,877. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $542.81. The firm has a market cap of $1.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $494.09 and its 200-day moving average is $479.87.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total value of $190,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,817. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $190,756.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,559 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,817. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $268,606.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 310,685 shares of company stock worth $154,398,206 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 5,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,880,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 287.3% during the 2nd quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 883 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $445,000 after buying an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.5% in the 2nd quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,983,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 36.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.3% in the second quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 2,242 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,130,000 after buying an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.