Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Increased to $588.00 by Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective upped by Stifel Nicolaus from $527.00 to $588.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $555.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday. Raymond James boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $435.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $519.53.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.5 %

META stock opened at $501.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.68, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 2.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $494.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $397.43. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $207.13 and a one year high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.00 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.06 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 13.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 566 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.00, for a total transaction of $217,910.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 35,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,585,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550. 13.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Keel Point LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,008,000 after buying an additional 399 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.