Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Price Target Cut to $500.00 by Analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) had its price objective lowered by Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from $540.00 to $500.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

META has been the topic of several other research reports. Piper Sandler reissued an overweight rating and issued a $545.00 price target (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $540.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $609.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $509.18.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $443.29 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a 50 day moving average of $494.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $404.85. The company has a market cap of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms has a 52 week low of $229.85 and a 52 week high of $531.49.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The social networking company reported $4.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.32 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $36.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.28 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 32.03% and a net margin of 32.06%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms will post 20.2 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 22nd were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 11.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $393.85, for a total transaction of $7,751,361.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,349,148 shares of company stock worth $649,552,559 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $11,285,855,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $39,270,443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 11,154.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,952,254 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,752,900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,251 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 30,217,175 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,695,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,440,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 111.0% during the fourth quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 7,391,877 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 3,888,308 shares during the last quarter. 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.