Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $700.00 by Analysts at DA Davidson

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lowered by equities researchers at DA Davidson from $850.00 to $700.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. DA Davidson’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 31.30% from the stock’s current price.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $1,015.00 to $883.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $800.77.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META traded down $52.48 on Thursday, reaching $533.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 19,444,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,714,834. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $520.26 and a 52 week high of $796.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $1.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $603.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $624.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.4 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This represents a 94.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total transaction of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares in the company, valued at $5,708,013.06. This trade represents a 26.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 39,325 shares of company stock valued at $23,979,087 over the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $26,112,735,000 after acquiring an additional 310,947 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta reported revenue of $60.8 billion, up 28% year over year and above Wall Street expectations. Advertising trends remained strong, with ad revenue growth, higher impressions and improved pricing; AI-driven recommendations also helped increase time spent on Instagram. Meta Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts maintained favorable ratings despite lowering price targets. Citizens JMP, Cantor Fitzgerald, Rosenblatt Securities, KeyCorp, Bank of America and Monness Crespi & Hardt still rated the stock market outperform, overweight or buy, with targets ranging from $680 to $883. Analyst Price Target Updates
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish commentators argue Meta’s advertising business can fund its AI investments, while potential leasing of excess computing capacity and expansion into enterprise AI could create additional revenue streams. Meta Potentially Leasing AI Compute
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is advancing a $14 billion data-center project with BlackRock and is considering how to balance selling computing capacity with reserving it for internal AI models. The strategy could improve returns, but investors want clearer evidence of monetization. Meta’s AI Compute Conundrum
• Negative Sentiment: Second-quarter EPS was $6.18, below the roughly $7.19 consensus and down from $7.14 a year earlier. Legal and severance charges contributed to the miss, while Reality Labs continued to lose more than $4.6 billion. Meta Misses Profit Expectations
• Negative Sentiment: Meta plans approximately $130 billion to $145 billion of 2026 capital spending, with third-quarter revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion below the $63.2 billion analyst estimate. The resulting concern is that AI spending is consuming nearly all operating cash flow without yet demonstrating sufficient returns. Meta and Microsoft Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street’s broad price-target reductions indicate lower near-term expectations, even though most firms remain bullish. Investors are contrasting Meta’s spending-heavy AI strategy with Microsoft’s clearer evidence that AI investments are generating growth. Why Investors Prefer Microsoft’s AI Spending

About Meta Platforms

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.