Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $700.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $680.00. Wedbush’s price objective points to a potential upside of 9.99% from the stock’s current price.

META has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $605.00 to $630.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $670.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.20.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $636.45 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.98, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $600.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $559.30. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $385.66 and a 52 week high of $638.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The company had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 731 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $557.00, for a total value of $407,167.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,901,598. The trade was a 17.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,951 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.16, for a total value of $5,166,159.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 51,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,776,261.56. This represents a 14.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 568,016 shares of company stock valued at $346,031,180 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Lindenwold Advisors INC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC now owns 5,918 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,388,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 2,680 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,569,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the period. Central Valley Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Central Valley Advisors LLC now owns 5,714 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,271,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Finally, Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cherrydale Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.