Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $750.00 at Raymond James

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lowered by Raymond James from $800.00 to $750.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. Raymond James currently has a strong-buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $628.00 to $655.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $695.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Benchmark dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $624.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $696.45.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $597.02 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $442.65 and a 1-year high of $740.91. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $575.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $603.80. 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 $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The social networking company reported $6.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by $1.10. The firm had revenue of $42.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.45 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. The business’s revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.19%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 55,589 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $717.72, for a total value of $39,897,337.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $676.00, for a total transaction of $279,188.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,449 shares in the company, valued at $10,443,524. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 237,017 shares of company stock valued at $167,207,524. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 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.