Canaccord Genuity Group Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $610.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group from $580.00 to $610.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Canaccord Genuity Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 23.44% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $555.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $518.15.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $494.17 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $493.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $396.70. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total transaction of $239,134.70. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at $39,015,070.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.00, for a total transaction of $305,370.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,398 shares in the company, valued at $20,043,756. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $488.03, for a total value of $239,134.70. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 79,944 shares in the company, valued at $39,015,070.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after buying an additional 3,104,550 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after buying an additional 927,491 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,223,148,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.