Meta Platforms’ (META) Market Outperform Rating Reiterated at Citizens Jmp

Citizens Jmp restated their market outperform rating on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) in a research report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $900.00 target price on the social networking company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 26th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $837.09.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $659.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $627.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $650.33. The company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Meta Platforms has a 1 year low of $517.50 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.02 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms will post 29.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 166,117 shares of company stock valued at $106,367,778. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 76,587.7% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 105,154,977 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $22,152,075,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after buying an additional 7,269,279 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 488.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,466,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,608,445,000 after buying an additional 4,537,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street support: Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” and $850 price target and other firms (Deutsche Bank, Citizens) remain constructive, highlighting AI-driven ad upside and margin leverage. Guggenheim Reaffirms Buy Rating, $850 PT
• Positive Sentiment: Deutsche Bank and others emphasize AI investments could strengthen Meta’s core advertising product and lift monetization, supporting bullish price targets. This Is the Impact of AI on Meta Platforms’ Core Advertising Business
• Positive Sentiment: Product and engagement catalysts — Threads added Live Chats and Meta Quest gained DirecTV streaming, which could help user engagement and new content monetization paths. Live Chats Are Now on Threads You Can Now Stream DirecTV on Your Meta Quest Headset
• Neutral Sentiment: Account and UX improvements: Meta is revamping its cross-app Meta Account system to streamline logins and device management — a product-level improvement with unclear near-term revenue impact. Meta Is Revamping Its Cross-App Management System
• Neutral Sentiment: Safety/parent tools: Meta added a feature letting parents see topics teens ask Meta AI about; reputationally positive but unlikely to move near-term revenue. Parents Can Now See What Their Kids Are Asking Meta AI About
• Negative Sentiment: Large workforce reduction: Meta will cut ~8,000 roles (10% of staff) and freeze hiring for ~6,000 open positions to “run more efficiently” and offset AI capex — the scale of the move signals heavy near-term restructuring and underscores how costly Meta’s AI buildout remains. Meta Prepares 8,000 Layoffs to Offset AI Infrastructure Investments
• Negative Sentiment: Employee-tracking controversy: Reports that Meta is logging employee keystrokes, clicks and mouse activity to train AI raise privacy/ethical concerns and potential regulatory scrutiny. Meta Is Tracking Employee Usage on Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and ESG pressures: New shareholder proposals, recent court rulings around teen addiction liability and a consumer suit over ad-related scams increase potential legal costs and reputational risk. Meta Verdict Poised to Shift Platform Liability Consumer Watchdog Group Files Suit
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Javier Olivan disclosed multi-hundred-thousand-dollar share sales under a 10b5-1 plan, a data point some investors watch as a mild negative signal. SEC Filing: Javier Olivan Share Sales

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.