Sanford C. Bernstein Increases Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $675.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective boosted by Sanford C. Bernstein from $600.00 to $675.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.75% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on META. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $647.00 to $652.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Two investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $621.63.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $573.25 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $551.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $510.72. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $279.40 and a twelve month high of $602.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.83, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $0.46. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. The firm had revenue of $39.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 32,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,612,808.90. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 492 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.75, for a total value of $295,569.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 518,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,493,681. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $574.70, for a total transaction of $520,103.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,612,808.90. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 250,817 shares of company stock valued at $132,547,715 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 13.7% in the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 822 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $471,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 10,151 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,811,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. S.A. Mason LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.7% in the third quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,545 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $884,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 21.4% in the third quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,444 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,406,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665 shares during the period. Finally, Solidarity Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.3% in the third quarter. Solidarity Wealth LLC now owns 9,685 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,544,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.