Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) shares were up 4.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $666.26 and last traded at $662.36. Approximately 17,323,590 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 8% from the average daily volume of 15,994,996 shares. The stock had previously closed at $634.53.
Key Meta Platforms News
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: eMarketer/coverage shows Meta is on track to overtake Google as the largest global digital-ad company, supporting upside to ad revenue and long-term monetization of Instagram/Reels and AI ad products. Read More.
- Positive Sentiment: Large investors and Wall Street remain bullish (mentions of Philippe Laffont, Bill Ackman and Bank of America recommendations), signaling potential institutional demand and conviction in META’s growth story. Read More.
- Positive Sentiment: Options activity and investor flows point to continued bullish positioning around META as an AI leader, which can amplify moves into earnings. Read More.
- Positive Sentiment: Product/VR tailwinds: Meta extended a multi-year platform and enterprise deal with Unity, supporting its metaverse/VR roadmap and potential hardware/software monetization. Read More.
- Neutral Sentiment: Meta set Q1 results release for April 29 — an event risk that could drive volatility depending on ad revenue, AI progress, and guidance. Read More.
- Neutral Sentiment: Meta is developing AI-driven, photorealistic avatars (including an internal Zuckerberg replica) to scale employee engagement and product demos — a long-term tech investment that has generated mixed PR headlines. Read More.
- Negative Sentiment: Legal risk: an Italian court accepted a class action over Facebook data scraping, adding potential litigation exposure and reputational risk in Europe. Read More.
- Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/consumer-pressure: the Philippines ordered tighter measures on panic-inducing content and U.S. state attorneys general warned about scams on Meta platforms — continued moderation and compliance costs could pressure margins or invite fines. Read More.
- Negative Sentiment: Analyst moves: some firms trimmed price targets (e.g., Wolfe Research, Stifel tweaks), which may cap near-term upside despite maintained buy ratings. Read More.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
META has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $856.00 to $765.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $837.72.
Meta Platforms Price Performance
The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $627.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $652.48. The firm has a market cap of $1.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $8.02 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms
In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total value of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% 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, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 160,414 shares of company stock valued at $102,659,925 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Goldstone Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 44.4% in the third quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,756,000 after acquiring an additional 1,153 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.2% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $38,373,000 after acquiring an additional 13,311 shares during the period. Becker Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.0% in the third quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,487,000 after acquiring an additional 3,336 shares during the period. Finally, Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 16.2% in the third quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 6,933 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,091,000 after acquiring an additional 968 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Meta Platforms Company Profile
Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.
Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.
Featured Stories
Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
