Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $500.00 Price Target at Guggenheim

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price cut by Guggenheim from $520.00 to $500.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on META. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated an underperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of META stock traded down $4.03 during trading on Thursday, hitting $437.35. 18,127,395 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,199,652. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $229.85 and a 52-week high of $531.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $495.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $403.40.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company 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 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 585 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.25, for a total value of $287,381.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at $18,288,255. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock valued at $649,552,559 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position 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 worth $79,212,000 after buying an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.