Susquehanna Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $800.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by research analysts at Susquehanna from $675.00 to $800.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “positive” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Susquehanna’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 13.72% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on META. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $750.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $679.12.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META traded up $26.97 during trading on Thursday, reaching $703.46. 9,421,431 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,582,289. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.18, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $710.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $608.52 and a 200 day moving average of $563.58.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 661,312 shares of company stock worth $407,377,422 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is 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.