Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Rating Reiterated by Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $570.00 price target on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $610.00 to $575.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased 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. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $534.87.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $465.70 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $274.38 and a one year high of $542.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $493.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $475.36.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 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 analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $472.70, for a total value of $194,752.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,376 shares in the company, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,268,235.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,058 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $2,386,617.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,272,152.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 311,348 shares of company stock worth $154,678,120. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $90,891,055,000 after acquiring an additional 831,047 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after acquiring an additional 244,803 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,296,383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,719 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,799,612,000 after acquiring an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. 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.