Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:METAGet Free Report) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $575.00 to $650.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 11.36% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on META. Mizuho boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $635.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $580.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $626.39.

View Our Latest Stock Report on META

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $583.69 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.49, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.22. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $296.86 and a 12 month high of $602.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $554.49 and a 200 day moving average of $512.18.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:METAGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 21.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.49, for a total value of $75,073.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,387 shares in the company, valued at $62,254,449.63. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total transaction of $4,714,502.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at $39,285,234.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 250,818 shares of company stock valued at $132,569,993 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Spinnaker Trust raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the third quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 1,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,029,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. CV Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 479.0% during the 3rd quarter. CV Advisors LLC now owns 2,889 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,654,000 after buying an additional 2,390 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 5,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,217,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.3% in the third quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 2,149 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Maia Wealth LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 13.4% during the third quarter. Maia Wealth LLC now owns 8,684 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,931,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Meta Platforms

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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.

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