Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $500.00 Price Target at Oppenheimer

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Oppenheimer from $585.00 to $500.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 1.32% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $397.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $380.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $555.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $450.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $535.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $518.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ:META 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. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $207.13 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $495.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $403.14.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.32 by $0.39. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.28 billion. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 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 value of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.76, for a total transaction of $7,769,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449. Company insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of META. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after buying an additional 5,001,647 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after buying an additional 4,908,251 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after buying an additional 4,440,229 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 3,888,308 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.