Guggenheim Has Lowered Expectations for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by Guggenheim from $750.00 to $675.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Guggenheim’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 29.26% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on META. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $710.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $713.07.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock traded up $5.97 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $522.22. The company had a trading volume of 13,720,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,469,134. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $645.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $610.47. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $414.50 and a 12-month high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $611.10, for a total value of $21,951,323.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 534,820 shares of company stock valued at $355,819,896. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the last quarter. Brueske Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $459,000. Apollon Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,675,174 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,908,382,000 after buying an additional 110,040 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.