Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 2.2% – What’s Next?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price shot up 2.2% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $570.90 and last traded at $562.60. Approximately 14,290,448 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 12% from the average session volume of 16,283,937 shares. The stock had previously closed at $550.25.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Meta is considering turning surplus AI infrastructure into a cloud business, which could generate near-term revenue from investments already made in AI. Bloomberg report referenced in multiple articles
• Positive Sentiment: The move would diversify Meta’s business mix and reduce reliance on advertising, while putting it in competition with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Investopedia article
• Positive Sentiment: Traders also showed bullish positioning, with unusually heavy call-option activity suggesting expectations for further upside. Options trading activity source
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta also announced personnel changes, naming Alex Schultz its first chief data officer and promoting Denise Moreno to chief marketing officer, moves aimed at improving AI-driven analytics and marketing execution. Yahoo Finance article
• Negative Sentiment: Separately, Meta lost a bid to dismiss a multi-state lawsuit alleging Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children, keeping a legal overhang in place. Benzinga article

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,015.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $725.00 target price (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $805.00 to $780.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $840.60.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.26, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $607.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $629.23.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.43 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.63%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 39,013 shares of company stock valued at $24,115,999 over the last three months. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. VectorGlobal IAG Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $15,029,000. Ballast Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 3,934 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,251,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Pangea Capital Gestao de Recursos Ltda. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth about $2,861,000. Southern Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Southern Financial Group LLC now owns 982 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $562,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Steelhead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 1st quarter worth approximately $277,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.