Guggenheim Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $500.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Guggenheim from $520.00 to $500.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Guggenheim’s price objective points to a potential upside of 12.79% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Citigroup increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $494.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $404.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $229.85 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after acquiring an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.