Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Royal Bank of Canada reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $570.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Benchmark reissued a hold rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $571.84.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $12.41 on Thursday, hitting $475.73. 21,166,439 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,452,877. The company has a market cap of $1.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.86, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $274.38 and a 52 week high of $542.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $494.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $479.87.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 20.5 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total value of $268,606.08. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 576 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.33, for a total transaction of $268,606.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,819,124.11. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 1,135 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $535,549.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,753 shares in the company, valued at $4,130,103.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 310,685 shares of company stock worth $154,398,206. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 5,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,880,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 287.3% in the second quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 883 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the period. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.5% in the second quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,983,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 36.1% in the second quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.3% in the second quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 2,242 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.