JMP Securities Reiterates “Market Outperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating restated by JMP Securities in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 price target on the social networking company’s stock. JMP Securities’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 10.86% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on META. Wolfe Research increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $496.10 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $207.13 and a 12 month high of $531.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $495.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $402.50.

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

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449 in the last quarter. 14.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.3% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 3,856 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,158,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Bennett Selby Investments LP grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 36,738 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $11,029,000 after buying an additional 2,412 shares in the last quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the third quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,530 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.7% in the third quarter. Meredith Wealth Planning now owns 1,396 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Herbst Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $1,467,000. 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.