Citigroup Trims Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Target Price to $550.00

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

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on META. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Wedbush dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an overweight rating and issued a $545.00 target price (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $443.29 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $229.85 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $494.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $404.85.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,574,000. 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 ninety days. 13.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 valued at $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Signify Wealth acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in 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 valued at $79,212,000 after buying an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 valued at $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares in 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.