Wedbush Analysts Lower Earnings Estimates for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Wedbush decreased their Q3 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a report released on Thursday, April 25th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now anticipates that the social networking company will post earnings per share of $4.43 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $4.86. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $480.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $20.18 per share.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.37% and a net margin of 32.06%.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on META. Wolfe Research dropped 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $527.00 to $588.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $470.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 10.6 %

NASDAQ META opened at $441.38 on Friday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average is $495.08 and its 200 day moving average is $403.40. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $208.88 and a twelve month high of $531.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 68,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $2,600,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,574,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 552 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.00, for a total value of $256,128.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 34,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,853,952. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC raised 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 valued at $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after acquiring an additional 4,908,251 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,440,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 111.0% in the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 3,888,308 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.