Meta Platforms’ (META) Underperform Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on META. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Benchmark reiterated a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $520.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $494.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $404.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $229.85 and a twelve month high of $531.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given 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 yield of 0.45%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 65,600 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.50, for a total value of $26,272,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,752,900,000 after buying an additional 4,908,251 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.