Cantor Fitzgerald Boosts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $790.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $720.00 to $790.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.12% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on META. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $665.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $663.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $682.45.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of META traded up $21.87 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $698.36. The stock had a trading volume of 11,226,590 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,702,318. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $387.10 and a fifty-two week high of $710.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $608.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $563.58. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 previous year, the firm posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 22.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.58, for a total value of $234,410.54. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 10,294 shares in the company, valued at $5,842,668.52. This trade represents a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 661,312 shares of company stock worth $407,377,422 over the last three months. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 58,218 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,087,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 140,585 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $82,314,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,827,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,915,451,000 after purchasing an additional 118,298 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.4% during the 3rd quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,679 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,686,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 9,735 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,573,000 after purchasing an additional 65 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.