Barclays Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $520.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target dropped by research analysts at Barclays from $550.00 to $520.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 17.85% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also commented on META. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $480.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $510.18.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $52.25 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $441.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 73,885,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,073,053. Meta Platforms has a 12-month low of $208.88 and a 12-month high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $495.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $403.14. The company has a market cap of $1.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.58, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was 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 owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449 over the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 3,104,550 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 927,491 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,184,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.