Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) Expected to Earn FY2024 Earnings of $20.63 Per Share

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Research analysts at William Blair increased their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a report issued on Wednesday, July 31st. William Blair analyst R. Schackart now forecasts that the social networking company will earn $20.63 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $19.17. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $20.50 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q4 2024 earnings at $6.01 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $7.06 EPS.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on META. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $570.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $562.00 to $643.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $572.51.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $494.09 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $494.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $481.35. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $274.38 and a 52-week high of $542.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a current ratio of 2.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.38, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 34.16% and a net margin of 34.34%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.23 EPS.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,058 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $2,386,617.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,272,152.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,058 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total transaction of $2,386,617.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,272,152.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,911 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.85, for a total value of $2,317,255.35. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 11,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,373,427.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 310,671 shares of company stock valued at $154,419,524 in the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 527.3% in the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the second quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 95.6% in the first quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.