Meta Platforms (META) – Investment Analysts’ Weekly Ratings Changes

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

• 1/22/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target lowered by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $730.00 to $720.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 1/22/2025 – Meta Platforms had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush. They now have a $700.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $680.00.
• 1/21/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Raymond James from $675.00 to $725.00. They now have a “strong-buy” rating on the stock.
• 1/13/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $600.00 to $660.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 1/13/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $641.00 to $685.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 1/10/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at KeyCorp from $655.00 to $700.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 1/6/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Wedbush from $640.00 to $680.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 1/6/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from $675.00 to $715.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 1/3/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Wolfe Research from $670.00 to $730.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 1/2/2025 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at JMP Securities from $660.00 to $750.00. They now have a “market outperform” rating on the stock.
• 12/18/2024 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $660.00 to $725.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 12/17/2024 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Truist Financial Co. from $650.00 to $700.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 12/10/2024 – Meta Platforms had its price target raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $650.00 to $670.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 11/25/2024 – Meta Platforms had its “strong-buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Raymond James. They now have a $675.00 price target on the stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.1 %

META stock opened at $623.50 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $598.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $558.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $382.08 and a fifty-two week high of $638.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.73 and a current ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 35.55% and a return on equity of 35.60%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $580.10, for a total transaction of $524,990.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 31,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,262,708.20. This represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $626.80, for a total value of $22,515,282.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 567,111 shares of company stock worth $345,453,784 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $46,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.