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

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price raised by Piper Sandler from $525.00 to $600.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Wedbush raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $502.75.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of META stock opened at $511.90 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $491.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $393.22. The company has a market cap of $1.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.00 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total value of $305,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,043,756. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,460,035 shares of company stock valued at $691,937,607. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the first quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC now owns 2,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,438,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLP increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.1% in the first quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 592,155 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $287,539,000 after purchasing an additional 44,506 shares during the period. Priebe Wealth Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $238,000. Inspirion Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the first quarter worth $256,000. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.2% in the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 31,867 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $15,474,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. 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.