Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Raised to $675.00 at Jefferies Financial Group

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective increased by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $600.00 to $675.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 18.09% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Pivotal Research initiated coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $780.00 target price for the company. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $565.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $570.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $619.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of META opened at $571.62 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $279.40 and a 12-month high of $602.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $547.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $509.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.23 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total transaction of $75,073.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,254,449.63. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 412 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.00, for a total transaction of $190,756.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 5,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total transaction of $75,073.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,254,449.63. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 249,911 shares of company stock valued at $131,978,559. 13.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Keystone Wealth Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $789,000 after buying an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,817 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,825,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 345.5% in the 1st quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,430 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,973,000 after buying an additional 39,885 shares in the last quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 1st quarter worth about $4,539,000. Finally, Factory Mutual Insurance Co. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. now owns 330,590 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $160,528,000 after buying an additional 7,200 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.