Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) PT Lowered to $550.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective cut by Citigroup from $590.00 to $550.00 in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $520.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $570.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of META traded down $4.03 on Thursday, hitting $437.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 18,127,395 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,199,652. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $495.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $403.40. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $229.85 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total value of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,288,255. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 2,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $958,392.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,757,883.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,288,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559 in the last quarter. 13.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after acquiring an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.