Arete Research Upgrades Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) to “Strong-Buy”

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) was upgraded by research analysts at Arete Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Mizuho lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $925.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 price objective (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. Arete upgraded Meta Platforms from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $718.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $825.00 target price (down previously from $900.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $825.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $819.43.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $661.53 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $674.56 and a 200-day moving average of $705.81. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $6.03 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,690 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $593.31, for a total transaction of $6,935,793.90. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,415 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,432,843.65. This trade represents a 82.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $642.22, for a total transaction of $333,312.18. Following the transaction, the insider owned 30,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,737,989.48. This represents a 1.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 41,959 shares of company stock worth $26,671,107 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 237.5% during the second quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 54 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently 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.