Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $565.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective decreased by equities research analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $590.00 to $565.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s price target points to a potential upside of 27.46% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on META. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $229.85 and a twelve month high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $494.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $404.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.37%. Analysts forecast 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $404.00, for a total transaction of $228,664.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 34,720 shares in the company, valued at $14,026,880. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559 over the last quarter. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $13,469,906,000 after acquiring an additional 927,491 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,890,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,978 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,296,383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,719 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by 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.