Bank of America Has Lowered Expectations for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price target cut by analysts at Bank of America from $885.00 to $820.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 19.09% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on META. Erste Group Bank lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 price objective (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $836.30.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $688.55 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $627.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $650.79. Meta Platforms has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $8.02 EPS. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 165,079 shares of company stock valued at $105,624,755 in the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 105,292,277 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $69,502,379,000 after acquiring an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,608,445,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537,076 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $59,963,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.