Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Given New $550.00 Price Target at Citigroup

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target cut by Citigroup from $590.00 to $550.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 24.61% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on META. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $590.00 to $530.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 10.6 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock traded down $52.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $441.38. 82,642,094 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,210,709. The company has a 50 day moving average of $495.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $403.14. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $208.88 and a fifty-two week high of $531.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 EPS 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 company had revenue of $36.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms will post 20.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total value of $245,578.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,089 shares in the company, valued at $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $501.18, for a total transaction of $245,578.20. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,552,865.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. Insiders sold a total of 1,368,244 shares of company stock valued at $657,034,449 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.75% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 451,581 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $159,841,000 after buying an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Stockton grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Signify Wealth bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 223,788 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $79,212,000 after purchasing an additional 4,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.