Wedbush Issues Negative Forecast for Meta Platforms Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Analysts at Wedbush dropped their Q4 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Meta Platforms in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, April 15th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the social networking company will earn $6.76 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $7.25. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $680.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $26.70 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ FY2026 earnings at $25.05 EPS.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $686.83.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.7 %

META opened at $502.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $616.82 and its 200 day moving average is $607.81. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $414.50 and a fifty-two week high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.33 EPS.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Valley Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,743,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Meredith Wealth Planning increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,873 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Maiden Cove Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Maiden Cove Capital LLC now owns 481 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $255,234.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,057,950. The trade was a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 414,901 shares of company stock valued at $282,367,368 over the last ninety days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase 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 0.42%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.78%.

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.