Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $41.03 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Meta by 27.3% in Q4 to 62,164 shares, valued at about $41.03 million.
• Institutional investors own roughly 79.91% of Meta, with large managers like Vanguard and State Street raising positions (Vanguard holds ~199.996M shares, ~$132.0B).
• Meta beat quarterly expectations (EPS $10.44 vs. $6.67 est., revenue $56.31B) and is ramping AI products and infrastructure spending, but faces publisher copyright suits and regulatory/legal headwinds.

Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 27.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 62,164 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 13,345 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $41,034,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $132,015,115,000 after acquiring an additional 7,269,279 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,247,690 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $28,823,375,000 after acquiring an additional 278,180 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,153,754 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $12,597,374,000 after acquiring an additional 142,229 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,332,168 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $10,525,258,000 after acquiring an additional 558,792 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 execution — analysts and coverage emphasize Meta's beat on revenue and EPS and continued ad/margin strength, underpinning investor confidence in cash flow to fund AI investment. Meta: Keep Calm And Focus On Muse, Spark, And Record Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: AI product roadmap — multiple reports (FT/Reuters) say Meta is building advanced, agentic personal AI assistants and consumer-facing agents, reinforcing the company's long-term TAM for AI monetization. This helps justify heavy capex for AI infrastructure. Meta plans advanced 'agentic' AI assistant for users, FT reports
• Positive Sentiment: Capex demand signal from suppliers — a MarketBeat piece highlights Corning's $6B supply deal with Meta as part of hyperscale optical contracts, signaling durable infrastructure spend that supports Meta’s AI buildout. Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity — Meta COO Javier Olivan sold shares via a pre-arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan (reported May 4), reducing his holdings; typical for planned programmatic selling and not an immediate red flag. SEC Filing: Javier Olivan ownership
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst moves — Mizuho trimmed its price target slightly (from $850 to $835) but kept an outperform view, reflecting continued bullishness despite higher AI spending and elevated valuation debate. Benzinga coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Copyright suits and publisher litigation — major publishers (Elsevier, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, etc.) filed suits alleging Meta used copyrighted works to train Llama; litigation could lead to damages or costly settlements and increases model deployment risk. Major publishers sue Meta for copyright infringement over AI training
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory & litigation pressure — Meta asked a judge to overturn a landmark social‑media addiction verdict and faces state actions seeking large damages; EU/Irish probes and potential orders on WhatsApp also raise compliance costs and uncertainty. Meta asks California judge to throw out landmark social media addiction verdict

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.74, for a total value of $562,767.24. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 7,779 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,727,609.46. This trade represents a 10.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $667.00, for a total transaction of $386,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,565,949. The trade was a 13.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 168,193 shares of company stock worth $107,642,717. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $612.88 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.25. The company's 50-day moving average price is $628.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $646.01.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 32.84% and a return on equity of 36.93%. The firm had revenue of $56.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.43 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 33.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 30.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $840.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $840.31.

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.

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