Ascent Group LLC Has $36.68 Million Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta by 3.6% to 55,569 shares—worth about $36.68 million—making the stock roughly 1.3% of its portfolio and its 14th largest holding.
• Positive catalysts — including the Muse Spark LLM launch and an expanded $21 billion CoreWeave compute deal — have lifted analyst sentiment and driven upgrades, supporting Meta’s AI growth narrative.
• Regulatory and insider pressure remain: the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Meta must face a youth‑addiction lawsuit and the company pulled related ads, while insiders sold about 160,931 shares (~$103M) in the past three months.

Ascent Group LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,569 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,947 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.3% of Ascent Group LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Ascent Group LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $36,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. JB Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 12,469 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $8,230,000 after purchasing an additional 3,192 shares during the period. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 1,578 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,042,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the period. Chatterton & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $343,000. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 13,848 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $8,597,000 after purchasing an additional 2,599 shares during the period. Finally, Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,633 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total transaction of $366,571.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at $2,797,952.54. The trade was a 11.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $605.38, for a total value of $560,581.88. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,335 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,072,742.30. This represents a 6.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 160,931 shares of company stock worth $102,997,526 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $629.83 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.31. 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 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $628.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $654.03.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $8.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $775.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. 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. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Evercore raised 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $838.04.

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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