Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) stock jumped 1.00% on Wednesday to $249.21 against a previous-day closing price of $246.74. With 17.47 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 25.71 million shares. During the session, the Internet Content & Information company that operates in wider Communication Services sector, reached to the highest price of $249.57 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $244.95. The 52-week range on META shows that it touched its highest point at $253.57 and its lowest point at $88.09 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $272.27. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.19.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of META was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 2.77%, but this was up by 20.07% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 44.86% while six-month performance rose 126.84%. The stock gained 27.00% in the past year, while it has gained 107.09% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for META yields 8.33 with Next year EPS estimates of 14.55. For the next quarter, that number is 2.90. This implies an EPS growth rate of -33.60% for this year and 24.39% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 18.50% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 8.20%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 2.59 billion META shares are outstanding with a float of 2.20 billion shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 27.16 million, which was 1.06% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg as the firm’s Founder, Chairman & CEO, Ms. Susan J. S. Li serves as its Chief Financial Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 76.25% of META’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 44.78% of META, in contrast to 29.69% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 1.97%. As the largest shareholder in META with 7.71% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 171,592,503 shares worth 171,592,503. A second-largest stockholder of META, Fidelity Management & Research Co, holds 113,600,636 shares, controlling over 5.10% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in META, holding 100,014,259 shares or 4.49% stake. With a 3.11% stake in META, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 69,164,630 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which owns about 2.35% of META stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 52,243,081 shares valued at 12.56 billion. Fidelity Contrafund holds 1.87% of the stake in META, owning 41,525,358 shares worth 9.98 billion.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, META reported revenue of $28.82B and operating income of $8.36B. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $10.34B and diluted EPS was $2.46.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for META since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With META analysts setting a high price target of $350.00 and a low target of $100.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $273.66. Based on these targets, META could surge 40.44% to reach the target high and fall by -59.87% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 9.81% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded META stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 9 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 3,537 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 144 while that of sell transactions has risen to 107 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 1,294,036 while 1,188,964 shares were sold.
