Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Lowered to $555.00 at KeyCorp

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target reduced by KeyCorp from $575.00 to $555.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $520.28.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $493.50 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50 day moving average of $495.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $403.14. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $207.13 and a 52 week high of $531.49. The company has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.12, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.00 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total value of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 186,349,346 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,960,215,000 after acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 38,054,513 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $13,469,906,000 after acquiring an additional 927,491 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 36,277,772 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,890,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,978 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 34,738,470 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $12,296,383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,719 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.