UBS Group Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $610.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target lifted by research analysts at UBS Group from $530.00 to $610.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. UBS Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 23.44% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on META. Truist Financial raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $405.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $494.17 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $207.13 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $493.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $396.70.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.00 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total transaction of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at $3,924,027.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.77, for a total value of $7,513,615.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490. Corporate insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. S.A. Mason LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the first quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $645,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. LongView Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the first quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 1,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $856,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Madison Wealth Partners Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 1,417 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $502,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the first quarter. Henrickson Nauta Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,247 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $648,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Monterey Private Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the first quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. now owns 1,379 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $670,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. 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.