Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $790.00 price target on the social networking company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 35.05% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $718.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.2 %

META stock traded down $1.03 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $584.97. 3,168,718 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,236,933. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $653.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $610.68. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.43, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $603.98, for a total value of $21,695,565.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $627.05, for a total value of $577,513.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 31,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,552,673.10. This represents a 2.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 583,505 shares of company stock valued at $385,495,911. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JDM Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.