DA Davidson Weighs in on Meta Platforms FY2026 Earnings

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) – Stock analysts at DA Davidson issued their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of Meta Platforms in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, April 15th. DA Davidson analyst G. Luria expects that the social networking company will earn $26.81 per share for the year. DA Davidson currently has a “Buy” rating and a $650.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meta Platforms’ current full-year earnings is $26.70 per share.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on META. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $770.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $680.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $725.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $690.79.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.9 %

META stock opened at $521.52 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $621.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $608.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.00, for a total transaction of $255,234.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 16,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,057,950. This represents a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.85, for a total transaction of $22,050,105.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 414,293 shares of company stock valued at $282,029,046 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.1% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 3,219 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,842,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the period. Aldebaran Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the third quarter. Aldebaran Financial Inc. now owns 2,853 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,633,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,048 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

About Meta Platforms

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.