Bank of America Raises Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $710.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price increased by Bank of America from $660.00 to $710.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $811.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $645.00 to $705.00 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-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $636.45 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $385.66 and a 12 month high of $638.40. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $600.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $559.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total transaction of $2,918,698.12. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 8,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,943,375.40. This trade represents a 37.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.