Piper Sandler Lowers Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $610.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target cut by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $775.00 to $610.00 in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target points to a potential upside of 9.35% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on META. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $750.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Argus set a $775.00 target price on Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $704.62.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock traded down $27.94 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $557.83. The company had a trading volume of 7,731,409 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,644,940. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $414.50 and a 12 month high of $740.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $634.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $609.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 23.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $604.54, for a total transaction of $547,108.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 31,105 shares in the company, valued at $18,804,216.70. This represents a 2.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total value of $6,300,738.51. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 51,793 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,154,349.31. The trade was a 14.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 499,507 shares of company stock worth $334,165,387. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,949,512,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 67,172.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 23,452,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,517,178,000 after purchasing an additional 23,417,803 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 78,471.1% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,248,763 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,658,713,000 after buying an additional 6,240,810 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $2,243,603,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,445,565 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,727,613,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787,832 shares in the last quarter. 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.