In the latest trading session, 3.44 million Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) shares changed hands as the company’s beta touched 1.22. With the company’s most recent per share price at $336.32 changed hands at -$3.65 or -1.08% at last look, the market valuation stands at $864.29B. META’s current price is a discount, trading about -1.65% off its 52-week high of $341.87. The share price had its 52-week low at $108.32, which suggests the last value was 67.79% up since then. When we look at Meta Platforms Inc’s average trading volume, we note the 10-day average is 16.19 million shares, with the 3-month average coming to 20.24 million.

Analysts gave the Meta Platforms Inc (META) stock a consensus recommendation rating of a Buy, calculated at a mean rating of 1.47. If we narrow down to specifics, the data shows that 1 out of 60 analysts rate the stock as a Sell, with a further 5 assigning it an Overweight rating. Of the remaining, 8 recommended META as a Hold, 45 felt it is a Buy and 1 rated the stock as Underweight. Meta Platforms Inc’s EPS for the current quarter is expected to be $4.9.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) trade information

Instantly META was in red as seen in intraday trades today. The drop to weekly highs of 341.87 on Monday, 11/20/23 subtracted -1.08% to the stock’s daily price. The company’s shares are showing year-to-date upside of 179.47%. However, in the 30-day time frame, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is 7.10% up. Looking at the short shares, we see there were 31.77 million shares sold at short interest cover period of 1.37 days.

The consensus price target for the stock as assigned by Wall Street analysts is $377.22, meaning bulls need an upside of 10.84% from its recent market value. According to analyst projections, META’s forecast low is $175.00 with $477.00 as the target high. To hit the forecast high, the stock’s price needs a -41.83% plunge from its current level, while the stock would need to tank 47.97% for it to hit the projected low.

Meta Platforms Inc (META) estimates and forecasts

Data shows that the Meta Platforms Inc share is performing relatively much better than most of its peers within the same industry. As can be gleaned from the statistics, the company’s share value shot 36.30% over the past 6 months, a 44.25% in annual growth rate that is considerably higher than the industry average of 18.40%. Moreover, analysts have looked to higher expectations by upgrading its fiscal year 2023 revenue estimates. The rating firms predict current quarter revenue for Meta Platforms Inc will rise 178.40%, while the growth in revenue is estimated to hit 60.00% for the next quarter. Year-over-year growth is forecast to reach 14.50% up from the last financial year.

Consensus estimates given by 39 financial analysts project the company’s revenue in the current quarter to hit an average of $38.96 billion. 26 analysts are of the opinion that Meta Platforms Inc’s revenue for the quarter ending Mar 2024 will be $33.65 billion. The company’s revenue for the corresponding quarters a year ago was $32.16 billion and $28.64 billion respectively. According to analysts, the company will likely register a growth in its current quarter sales, forecast at 21.10%. The estimates for the next quarter sales put growth at 17.50%.

Looking at the company’s year-on-year earnings, data shows that the past 5-year has an earnings growth rate of 9.76%. The 2023 estimates are for Meta Platforms Inc earnings to increase by 67.17%, but the outlook for the next 5-year period is at 32.47% per year.

META Dividends

Meta Platforms Inc is expected to release its next quarterly earnings report between January 30 and February 05.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)’s Major holders

If we look at who the major shareholders are, we find that insiders hold 0.23% of Meta Platforms Inc shares while 76.35% of the shares are in the hands of institutional holders. The share float percentage for the stock currently stands at 76.52%. There are 76.35% institutions holding the Meta Platforms Inc stock share, with Vanguard Group Inc the top institutional holder. As of Jun 29, 2023, the company held 8.17% of the shares, roughly 181.51 million META shares worth $52.09 billion.

Blackrock Inc. holds the second largest percentage of outstanding shares, with 7.01% or 155.78 million shares worth $44.7 billion as of Jun 29, 2023.

Among Mutual Funds, the top two as of Jun 29, 2023 were Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. With 68.99 million shares estimated at $19.8 billion under it, the former controlled 3.10% of total outstanding shares. On the other hand, Vanguard 500 Index Fund held about 2.37% of the shares, roughly 52.67 million shares worth around $15.12 billion.