Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1.7% – Time to Buy?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price traded up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $574.74 and last traded at $574.52. 3,330,214 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 14,911,064 shares. The stock had previously closed at $565.11.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on META shares. UBS Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $690.00 to $719.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $560.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.71.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $573.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $525.35.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 9.42%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $589.97, for a total value of $533,922.85. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,641,281.24. This represents a 2.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 7,975 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $516.36, for a total value of $4,117,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 531,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $274,643,622.24. The trade was a 1.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 118,218 shares of company stock valued at $65,819,414. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 122.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.