JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $480.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective cut by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $535.00 to $480.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on META. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $494.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $404.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $229.85 and a one year high of $531.49.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total transaction of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at $18,288,255. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total value of $287,381.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at $18,288,255. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Stockton increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Signify Wealth bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 4,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.