Pivotal Research Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $875.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective raised by research analysts at Pivotal Research from $800.00 to $875.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Pivotal Research’s price target indicates a potential upside of 26.96% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Mkm upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Arete Research raised Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $689.18 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $710.79. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.81, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $613.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $565.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.74% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creekside Partners acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $327,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 20,112 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,141,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 75.1% in the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 23,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $11,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,925,000. 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.