Piper Sandler Reiterates Overweight Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Piper Sandler reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a $545.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $600.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on META. Roth Mkm reiterated a buy rating and set a $500.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, March 18th. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $480.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $443.29 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a 1-year low of $229.85 and a 1-year high of $531.49. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $494.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $405.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.67.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. The firm had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total value of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,277,048 shares of company stock valued at $620,679,759. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Stone House Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 625.0% in the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 87 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 68.9% in the third quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 65.2% in the third quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 109 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Clear Investment Research LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 411.1% in the fourth quarter. Clear Investment Research LLC now owns 92 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by 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.