Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $765.00 to $770.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on META. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $841.26.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $611.91 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $629.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $648.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 38.83%. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $6.43 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $667.00, for a total value of $386,860.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,565,949. This trade represents a 13.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $670.84, for a total transaction of $421,958.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 2,372 shares in the company, valued at $1,591,232.48. This represents a 20.96% 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 167,155 shares of company stock worth $107,067,129 in the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings 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 worth $69,502,379,000 after purchasing an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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 worth $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings & ad momentum — Meta beat Q1 revenue and EPS expectations (revenue ~$56.3B; EPS well above consensus), showing robust ad demand and early AI monetization that supports long-term revenue growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: AI product traction — Meta says its Business AI now handles ~10 million conversations per week, evidence that AI features are being adopted and could drive new ad/enterprise revenue streams. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New monetization moves — Pilot to pay creators in USDC and partnerships to secure energy for data centers signal diversification of payments and longer-term infrastructure planning. Read More. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling disclosed — COO Javier Oliván sold shares under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan; typical disclosure but watched by investors for signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Massive capex raise — Meta raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance sharply (now ~$125B–$145B), triggering concerns about near-term free cash flow, funding needs and the payback timeline on multiyear AI infrastructure spending. Investors pitched the stock down on this news. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction vs peers — Investors rewarded Alphabet’s AI strategy but punished Meta for the scale and funding model of its AI spend (no cloud cushion), widening the gap in market confidence. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Funding & financing signals — Reports that Meta is exploring a $20–$25B investment-grade bond sale to fund AI expansion add to investor worry about higher leverage and dilution of near-term cash returns. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Cost cuts + job risk — Management told staff that layoffs are tied to capex priorities and did not rule out further cuts, underscoring reallocation toward AI at the expense of labor and short-term execution risk. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal exposure — EU Digital Services Act charges over under?13 users and a New Mexico AG standoff on age verification raise the possibility of fines, restrictions or costly compliance measures. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Loss-making bets & M&A headwinds — Reality Labs reported another multi?billion operating loss and Meta faces pushback/unwinding of deals (Manus acquisition), highlighting high-cost bets with uncertain returns. Read More. Read More.

About Meta Platforms

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.