Wedbush Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $480.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target lowered by Wedbush from $570.00 to $480.00 in a report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the social networking company’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q3 2024 earnings at $4.43 EPS.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Bank of America raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $229.85 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $494.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $405.39.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.06% and a return on equity of 32.03%. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,277,048 shares of company stock worth $620,679,759 in the last 90 days. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,212,000 after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.