Susquehanna Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target increased by Susquehanna from $675.00 to $800.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a positive rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on META. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Benchmark upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Roth Mkm upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $687.00 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $611.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $564.44. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $387.10 and a 52 week high of $710.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.36%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.97, for a total value of $21,838,890.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. This represents a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Creekside Partners acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth about $327,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $213,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 20,112 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,141,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 75.1% during the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 23,244 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $11,720,000 after acquiring an additional 9,972 shares during the period. Finally, Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $2,925,000. 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.