Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $627.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price lifted by Scotiabank from $583.00 to $627.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 9.02% from the stock’s previous close.

META has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $689.18 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $613.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $565.78. The company has a market cap of $1.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.19. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $710.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 39.74%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 25.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 901 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.70, for a total value of $511,497.70. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,360,833.70. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total transaction of $407,167.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 661,804 shares of company stock valued at $407,745,741 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,160,608 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $27,470,870,000 after purchasing an additional 698,884 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 14,440,868 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $8,266,531,000 after purchasing an additional 263,063 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 57,001.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,517,111 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,447,975,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,946,755 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,101,602,000 after purchasing an additional 186,728 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.