Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $935.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by Tigress Financial from $645.00 to $935.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a strong-buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on META. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $770.00 price objective (up from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $717.90.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $728.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50 day moving average of $636.47 and a 200-day moving average of $580.80. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $729.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This trade represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,644 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.55, for a total value of $10,320,386.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,769 shares in the company, valued at $25,888,979.95. This trade represents a 28.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 793,070 shares of company stock valued at $504,185,108. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 32.5% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $261,680,000 after purchasing an additional 112,047 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3,352.2% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 116,580 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $66,735,000 after purchasing an additional 113,203 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.7% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 4,926 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,820,000 after purchasing an additional 878 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the third quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,651 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,235,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M. Kraus & Co bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $207,000. 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.