Citizens Jmp Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its target price lowered by analysts at Citizens Jmp from $825.00 to $800.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market outperform” rating on the social networking company’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s target price suggests a potential upside of 26.69% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $760.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $767.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut Meta Platforms from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $838.26.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.7%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $631.48 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $598.10 and a 200-day moving average of $626.80. Meta Platforms has a twelve month low of $520.26 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The company had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $6.43 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 29.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total value of $4,769,642.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares in the company, valued at $251,641.62. The trade was a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 44,748 shares of company stock valued at $27,565,292 over the last three months. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Keybank National Association OH boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 133,798 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $88,319,000 after acquiring an additional 18,169 shares during the period. WMS Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $876,000. Diversified Trust Co. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $55,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,336 shares in the last quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 61.2% during the 4th quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,900 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,215,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta said it plans to begin producing its in-house AI chip in September, a step that could reduce reliance on Nvidia and AMD, lower computing costs, and support its expanding AI infrastructure strategy. Reuters article on Meta AI chip production
• Positive Sentiment: The company also launched Muse Spark 1.1 and opened developer access to its Model API, signaling broader monetization potential in AI coding and agentic tools and reinforcing Meta’s push to compete more directly with OpenAI and Anthropic. Reuters article on Muse Spark 1.1
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s AI buildout includes a major new data center in Alberta, which should add long-term computing capacity to support AI training and inference across Facebook, Instagram, and future AI products. Reuters article on Alberta data center
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted Meta’s strong core advertising business and improving operating leverage, helping offset concerns that heavy AI spending will hurt profitability.
• Neutral Sentiment: Needham reaffirmed a Hold rating on META, reflecting a mixed near-term setup rather than a clear bearish thesis.
• Negative Sentiment: The EU accused Meta of breaching the Digital Services Act over Instagram and Facebook design features such as autoplay and infinite scroll, and warned that failure to change them could lead to heavy fines. Reuters article on EU breach notice
• Negative Sentiment: The regulatory action adds to investor concerns about Meta’s platform risk, especially given the possibility of penalties and forced product changes in Europe. CNBC article on EU breach

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.