Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Rating Reiterated by JMP Securities

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating reissued by analysts at JMP Securities in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock. JMP Securities’ price target indicates a potential upside of 10.86% from the stock’s previous close.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $496.10 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $495.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $402.50. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $207.13 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449. Insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.3% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 3,856 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,158,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.0% in the third quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 36,738 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $11,029,000 after acquiring an additional 2,412 shares in the last quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the third quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,530 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.7% in the third quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,396 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Herbst Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $1,467,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.