Citizens Jmp Has Lowered Expectations for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective dropped by Citizens Jmp from $800.00 to $770.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s price target suggests a potential upside of 38.31% from the stock’s previous close.

META has been the topic of several other reports. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $785.00 target price (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $790.00 to $780.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.95.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 3.3%

META opened at $556.71 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $601.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $622.97. The company has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.25. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $7.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This trade represents a 65.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,325 shares of company stock worth $23,979,087. Insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Keybank National Association OH raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $88,319,000 after purchasing an additional 18,169 shares during the period. WMS Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $876,000. Consolidated Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 61.2% during the fourth quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,215,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Finally, Third View Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $27,789,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains strong. Second-quarter revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, while ad impressions, pricing, engagement and AI-powered recommendation tools continued to improve. Advantage+ advertising reportedly reached a $75 billion annualized run rate. Meta: Buy The AI Spending Panic
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and investment commentators view the selloff as an opportunity, arguing that Meta’s advertising engine can fund its AI investments and that AI is already improving ad performance, personalization and user engagement. Meta also highlighted potential enterprise AI products, personal AI agents and new applications. Buy Meta’s Earnings Drop
• Positive Sentiment: Despite reductions, major firms retained bullish ratings and price targets, including UBS at $715, Baird at $750, Cantor Fitzgerald at $680 and Rosenblatt at $883. The targets imply substantial long-term upside if Meta converts AI spending into monetization. Meta Given New Price Target at Baird
• Neutral Sentiment: The earnings miss was partly affected by approximately $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance costs. Excluding these items, supporters argue that underlying profitability was healthier, but reported margins still declined.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta reported $6.18 in quarterly EPS, below expectations near $7.19, while free cash flow fell to only $784 million from $31.9 billion in operating cash flow as AI data-center capital expenditures surged. Investors remain unconvinced that the spending will generate adequate returns soon. Tech’s AI Buildout Has Ballooning Price Tag
• Negative Sentiment: Future AI-related lease obligations reached $279 billion, increasing concerns about balance-sheet commitments and execution risk. Additional legal and regulatory pressure includes a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that social-media companies harmed minors, plus an Indian police case involving Meta’s India chief over Facebook posts depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meta’s AI Splurge Lays Bare Its Compute Conundrum

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.