The Goldman Sachs Group Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $555.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective boosted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $522.00 to $555.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on META. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $540.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $488.14 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $494.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $479.09. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $274.38 and a fifty-two week high of $542.81. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,135 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $535,549.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,753 shares in the company, valued at $4,130,103.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,135 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $535,549.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,130,103.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 310,685 shares of company stock worth $154,398,206. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first 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 period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,597,382,000 after acquiring an additional 244,803 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,296,383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,719 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first 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, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,285,855,000. Institutional investors 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.