Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $510.00 by Analysts at Roth Mkm

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target hoisted by Roth Mkm from $500.00 to $510.00 in a report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Roth Mkm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on META. 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 research note on Friday, February 2nd. Benchmark restated a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $441.38 on Thursday. 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 has a 1 year low of $208.88 and a 1 year high of $531.49. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $495.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $403.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 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 $3,803,278.08. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559. 13.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after buying an additional 927,491 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after buying an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after buying an additional 1,083,719 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.