Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Rating Reiterated by Wedbush

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $600.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets restated a market perform rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Benchmark reissued a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $562.00 to $643.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $591.23.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of META opened at $567.36 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $279.40 and a fifty-two week high of $577.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $516.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $499.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.36 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $569.93, for a total value of $5,699,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 328,662 shares in the company, valued at approximately $187,314,333.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $569.93, for a total transaction of $5,699,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 328,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $187,314,333.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total value of $231,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 12,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,152,320. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 342,358 shares of company stock valued at $179,431,101 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $90,891,055,000 after purchasing an additional 831,047 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,799,612,000 after acquiring an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,733,731,000 after acquiring an additional 2,748,620 shares in the last quarter. 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.