JMP Securities Reaffirms “Market Outperform” Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

JMP Securities restated their market outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research note released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. JMP Securities currently has a $550.00 price objective on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $420.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $375.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $493.50 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $207.13 and a 12-month high of $531.49. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $495.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $403.14.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.00 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449. Insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.