Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Cantor Fitzgerald restated their overweight rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $670.00 price target on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $475.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $613.71.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $576.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.22. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $544.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $507.60. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $279.40 and a 52-week high of $602.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 2.83.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The company’s revenue was up 22.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 21.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total value of $50,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at approximately $311,054,400. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $50,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,424 shares in the company, valued at $311,054,400. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 249,911 shares of company stock valued at $131,887,905. 13.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 527.3% during the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 95.6% in the 1st quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 88 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.