Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1.9% – Still a Buy?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares traded up 1.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $675.48 and last traded at $672.55. 7,838,056 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 13,732,800 shares. The stock had previously closed at $659.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $706.76.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $1.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $608.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $563.58.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $666.00, for a total transaction of $602,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,295 shares in the company, valued at $19,510,470. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 662,217 shares of company stock worth $407,980,152 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Opes Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 8,235 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,822,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 3,703 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,440,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copperleaf Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Copperleaf Capital LLC now owns 4,406 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,580,000 after buying an additional 415 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.