Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $600.00 at Guggenheim

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by Guggenheim from $500.00 to $600.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and issued a $570.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $563.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Loop Capital reissued a buy rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $488.14 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $274.38 and a 12-month high of $542.81. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $494.09 and its 200-day moving average is $479.87.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $190,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,817. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $190,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,817. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $268,606.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 310,685 shares of company stock valued at $154,398,206. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 835,972 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $295,901,000 after buying an additional 163,067 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,576,285 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,265,862,000 after acquiring an additional 51,900 shares during the last quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 94.4% in the fourth quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 8,349 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 4,054 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voyager Global Management LP boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Voyager Global Management LP now owns 515,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $182,289,000 after acquiring an additional 140,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.