Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) finished Thursday with a subtraction of -$7.49 to close at $286.75, a downside of -2.55 percent. An average of 21,035,400 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a gain of $1.66 in the past week, and it reached a new high 41 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 19,795,980 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 25,131,605.
META stock has decreased by -3.96% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $274.38 on 08/18/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 07/28/23, shares of the company touched a low of $88.09 and a high of $326.20 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 51 times so far this year and achieved 138.28% or $166.41 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -12.09% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
META stock investors should be aware that Meta Platforms Inc. (META) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 3 days ago on Aug 22. In this transaction, the insider spent $196,008. Chief Operating Officer, Olivan Javier, disposed of 4,277 shares at a price of $293.00 on Aug 17. The insider now owns more than $1,253,161 worth of shares. Prior to that, Chief Financial Officer LI SUSAN J went on to Sale 19,770 shares at $299.30 each on Aug 16. An amount of $5,917,100 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32.40. The stock’s beta is 1.24. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 6.16, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 5.49, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 30.90.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Meta Platforms Inc. for the three months ended June 29 was 2.30, and the current ratio was 2.30, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.14 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.15 for the quarter ending June 29. Meta Platforms Inc.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 29 is 36.22%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 23.80%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $91.36 billion compared to revenue of $116.61 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Meta Platforms Inc.’s return on assets was 11.90%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Meta Platforms Inc. had $18.38 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $7.79 billion in the quarter, while revenues of $5.71 billion were grew 14.14%. The analyst consensus anticipated Meta Platforms Inc.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $2.91 per share, but it turned out to be $2.98, a 2.40% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $12.02 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $2.57 billion.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Meta Platforms Inc. (META) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 24 August was 38.52%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 31.56%.
As of today, META’s price is $288.35 +0.58% or $1.66 from its 5-day moving average. META is currently trading -8.01% lower than its 20-day SMA and +35.30% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is +5.69% above the SMA50 and +215.84% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 34.52% and 33.00%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 9.35. With the 14-day stochastic at 28.43% and the average true range at 9.28, the RSI (14) stands at 42.04%. The stock has reached -2.61 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -8.40.
Analyst Ratings
Wedbush launched coverage on Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) in its analyst report released on August 22, 2023. The firm assigned the stock an Outperform rating. The consensus rating for Meta Platforms Inc. (META) among analysts is Buy. According to current brokerage recommendations, 0 brokerage firms advise that investors sell META, while 6 suggest investors hold. There are 1 analyst who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 5 analysts, while 45 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is META’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $238.00 and $435.00, with a median target of $380.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Meta Platforms Inc. (META) stock is $376.19.
