Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the forty-three ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, thirty-five have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $638.00.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 18,644 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.55, for a total transaction of $10,320,386.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 46,769 shares in the company, valued at $25,888,979.95. This trade represents a 28.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 326,211 shares of company stock valued at $197,633,759 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.0% during the 2nd quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 13,365 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,739,000 after purchasing an additional 2,315 shares during the last quarter. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $210,000. LS Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 128.3% during the 2nd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,524 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,785,000 after purchasing an additional 3,104 shares during the last quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $202,000. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 10,698 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,394,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ META opened at $585.51 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $588.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $547.56. 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 one year low of $340.01 and a one year high of $638.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 9.42%.

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.