Monness Crespi & Hardt Cuts Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target to $808.00

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective reduced by Monness Crespi & Hardt from $860.00 to $808.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on META. Truist Financial set a $880.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,086.00 to $1,117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $897.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Loop Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $980.00 price objective (up previously from $888.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $827.60.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $648.35 on Thursday. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $738.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $697.96.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.03 EPS. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Meta Platforms has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.28%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total value of $9,062,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,799 shares in the company, valued at $1,394,225. This trade represents a 86.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total value of $12,192,364.86. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 198,335 shares of company stock worth $153,047,009 in the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,212,506,000 after buying an additional 8,405,558 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $2,990,544,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares during the period. 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.