Raymond James Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $525.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price reduced by Raymond James from $550.00 to $525.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “strong-buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Raymond James’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 20.49% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $545.00 price target (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $512.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $57.79 on Thursday, hitting $435.71. 54,896,202 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,842,018. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $495.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $403.14. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $208.88 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total value of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. 13.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Signify Wealth purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.