Wedbush Has Bearish Estimate for Meta Platforms Q1 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:METAFree Report) – Wedbush dropped their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, January 29th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now anticipates that the social networking company will post earnings of $4.90 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $5.44. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $770.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $25.94 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Meta Platforms’ Q2 2025 earnings at $5.76 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $6.02 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $7.25 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $23.93 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $25.93 EPS.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:METAGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $680.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $710.83.

View Our Latest Analysis on META

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:META opened at $704.19 on Monday. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $710.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $618.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $570.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.36%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 12,975 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $696.39, for a total value of $9,035,660.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 210,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $146,918,094.69. This represents a 5.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Clegg sold 7,296 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $553.48, for a total value of $4,038,190.08. Following the sale, the insider now owns 38,695 shares in the company, valued at $21,416,908.60. This represents a 15.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 673,878 shares of company stock worth $416,269,904 over the last quarter. 13.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Avondale Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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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Earnings History and Estimates for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

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