Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $641.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $652.00 to $641.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other reports. TD Securities raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $670.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $811.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $570.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.10.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META traded down $0.42 during trading on Friday, reaching $567.16. 15,303,235 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,161,203. Meta Platforms has a 52-week low of $308.33 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. The company has a 50-day moving average of $555.99 and a 200-day moving average of $513.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.22.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.26% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.21 billion. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given 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 9.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $2,663,825.32. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 11,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,315,852.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 6,534 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $505.04, for a total value of $3,299,931.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 116,108 shares in the company, valued at $58,639,184.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 251,993 shares of company stock valued at $133,271,982. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Gradient Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 72,587 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $36,600,000 after acquiring an additional 5,953 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 6,101,501 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,962,767,000 after acquiring an additional 748,076 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 26.5% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 1,678 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $846,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 34,790 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $16,894,000 after acquiring an additional 2,504 shares during the period. Finally, BCGM Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. BCGM Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,311 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $637,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.