Rosenblatt Securities Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by Rosenblatt Securities in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $811.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 25.25% from the stock’s previous close.

META has been the topic of a number of other reports. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $647.49 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.50, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average of $601.93 and a 200 day moving average of $560.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $385.66 and a 1-year high of $652.00.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total value of $559,290.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,200 shares in the company, valued at $18,663,600. The trade was a 2.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.25, for a total value of $22,746,973.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 568,016 shares of company stock worth $346,031,180. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. James J. Burns & Company LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. James J. Burns & Company LLC now owns 1,092 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $639,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 317 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 15,050 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $8,898,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Pennsylvania Capital Management Inc. ADV lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Pennsylvania Capital Management Inc. ADV now owns 1,765 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robbins Farley grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 7,984 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,675,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 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.