Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Cantor Fitzgerald restated their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a report issued on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $660.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $643.00 to $811.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set an outperform rating and a $620.00 price target on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $598.08.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $572.81 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $521.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $501.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.90, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.21. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $279.40 and a 1 year high of $583.04.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total value of $483,224.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,940 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,724,113. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total value of $235,410.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 12,359 shares in the company, valued at $7,044,630. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.95, for a total transaction of $483,224.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,724,113. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 308,462 shares of company stock worth $162,308,065 in the last 90 days. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 187,180,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $90,891,055,000 after buying an additional 831,047 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,299,316 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,597,382,000 after buying an additional 244,803 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $12,296,383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,719 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.5% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 34,597,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $16,799,612,000 after purchasing an additional 4,379,826 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 24.7% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,867,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,733,731,000 after buying an additional 2,748,620 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.