Benchmark Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Benchmark in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of META stock opened at $496.10 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $207.13 and a one year high of $531.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $495.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $402.50.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total value of $7,769,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449. Insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Stone House Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 625.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 68.9% during the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. PayPay Securities Corp raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 65.2% in the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 109 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Clear Investment Research LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 411.1% during the fourth quarter. Clear Investment Research LLC now owns 92 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is 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.