Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. Acquires 1,339 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Meta Platforms stake update: Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. increased its holding by 5.1% (1,339 shares) to 27,657 shares worth $18.26M, and institutional investors now own about 79.91% of META.
• Earnings beat and AI catalysts: Meta posted Q4 EPS of $8.88 and revenue of $59.89B (both above estimates, with revenue up 23.8% YoY), and recent AI developments—Muse Spark and a $21B CoreWeave compute deal—have spurred analyst upgrades and higher price targets (consensus ~ $838).
• Insider selling and legal risk: Insiders sold roughly 160,931 shares (~$103M) in the past three months (including large CTO and CFO sales), while a Massachusetts court ruled Meta must face a youth‑addiction lawsuit, increasing regulatory and litigation risk.

Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,657 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,339 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.5% of Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,256,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. 1900 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. 1900 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,181 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $780,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Three Magnolias Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. Three Magnolias Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $692,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 57,098 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $37,690,000 after purchasing an additional 11,006 shares during the last quarter. Aspiriant LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Aspiriant LLC now owns 11,224 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $7,409,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenbush Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Greenbush Financial Group LLC now owns 3,115 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of META stock opened at $629.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.80, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.31. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $628.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $654.74.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm's revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus restated a "buy" rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $872.00 price objective (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $838.04.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Muse Spark launch strengthens Meta’s AI narrative — investors see the new LLM as evidence Meta can compete with other big‑model providers and begin monetizing AI via commerce, APIs and ad tools; early analyst support and bullish writeups helped lift shares. Meta's AI Outlook Brightens With Muse Spark Release
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded $21B CoreWeave deal gives Meta committed AI compute capacity through 2032 — reduces operational risk of running large models, signals scale and continuity for AI roadmaps (though it implies heavy future spending). CoreWeave signs $21 billion AI cloud deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is improving — CFRA upgraded Meta to Strong Buy and some firms remain constructive on share recovery tied to AI gains, helping sentiment. CFRA Just Upgraded Meta to Strong Buy. The AI Turnaround Story Is Getting Hard to Argue With
• Neutral Sentiment: Street price targets and ratings are mixed — some firms trimmed targets while keeping outperform/buy ratings, reflecting confidence in long‑term AI upside but concern over valuation and spend. (See recent Wolfe/KeyCorp/Rosenblatt notes.)
• Negative Sentiment: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Meta must face a state lawsuit alleging features were designed to addict teens — the decision increases legal and regulatory risk and could widen damages exposure if similar suits progress. Meta must face youth addiction lawsuit by Massachusetts, court rules
• Negative Sentiment: Meta pulled ads recruiting potential plaintiffs for social‑media addiction suits — a defensive PR/legal move that underscores ongoing litigation pressure and recent adverse jury outcomes. Meta pulls ads aimed at recruiting plaintiffs for social media addiction lawsuits

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 160,931 shares of company stock valued at $102,997,526. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms 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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