Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $480.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $535.00 to $480.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target points to a potential downside of 2.74% from the stock’s current price.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $513.43.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $493.50 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $495.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $403.14. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 18,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,036 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total transaction of $3,803,278.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 18,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,723,496.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock worth $657,034,449. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,819,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth approximately $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $79,212,000 after acquiring an additional 4,025 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,880,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. 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.