Citigroup Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $800.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price lowered by Citigroup from $850.00 to $800.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on META. Susquehanna reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,015.00 to $883.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, June 1st. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $835.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $789.95.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $556.71 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $601.16 and its 200-day moving average is $622.97. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $7.14 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms will post 28.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total transaction of $5,589,088.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $8,014,978.24. This represents a 41.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. The trade was a 26.06% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,325 shares of company stock worth $23,979,087 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after acquiring an additional 310,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s core advertising business remains strong. Second-quarter revenue increased 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, while ad impressions, pricing, engagement and AI-powered recommendation tools continued to improve. Advantage+ advertising reportedly reached a $75 billion annualized run rate. Meta: Buy The AI Spending Panic
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts and investment commentators view the selloff as an opportunity, arguing that Meta’s advertising engine can fund its AI investments and that AI is already improving ad performance, personalization and user engagement. Meta also highlighted potential enterprise AI products, personal AI agents and new applications. Buy Meta’s Earnings Drop
• Positive Sentiment: Despite reductions, major firms retained bullish ratings and price targets, including UBS at $715, Baird at $750, Cantor Fitzgerald at $680 and Rosenblatt at $883. The targets imply substantial long-term upside if Meta converts AI spending into monetization. Meta Given New Price Target at Baird
• Neutral Sentiment: The earnings miss was partly affected by approximately $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance costs. Excluding these items, supporters argue that underlying profitability was healthier, but reported margins still declined.
• Negative Sentiment: Meta reported $6.18 in quarterly EPS, below expectations near $7.19, while free cash flow fell to only $784 million from $31.9 billion in operating cash flow as AI data-center capital expenditures surged. Investors remain unconvinced that the spending will generate adequate returns soon. Tech’s AI Buildout Has Ballooning Price Tag
• Negative Sentiment: Future AI-related lease obligations reached $279 billion, increasing concerns about balance-sheet commitments and execution risk. Additional legal and regulatory pressure includes a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that social-media companies harmed minors, plus an Indian police case involving Meta’s India chief over Facebook posts depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meta’s AI Splurge Lays Bare Its Compute Conundrum

Meta Platforms Company Profile

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.