Asio Capital LLC Increases Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Asio Capital increased its stake in Meta by 9.4% in Q4, holding 27,018 shares valued at $17.83 million, which represents about 2.5% of the fund's assets and is its seventh-largest holding.
• Broadcom deal and bullish momentum: Meta struck a multi-year partnership with Broadcom through 2029 to secure >1 GW of custom silicon capacity for its AI chips, and recent earnings beats plus raised price targets (including Morgan Stanley naming META a top tech pick) support positive investor sentiment.
• Regulatory and insider risks: EU regulators are poised to force Meta to restore rival AI assistant access to WhatsApp and an Italian court allowed a data‑scraping class action, while notable insider selling (COO and others; insiders sold ~$105M in the last 90 days) may add near-term pressure.

Asio Capital LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 9.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,018 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,318 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 2.5% of Asio Capital LLC's holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Asio Capital LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $17,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. PMV Capital Advisers LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $71,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $62,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta struck a multi-year partnership with Broadcom through 2029 that includes an initial commitment to deploy >1 gigawatt of custom silicon capacity to support Meta’s Training & Inference Accelerator chips — it materially de-risks Meta’s AI compute buildout and signals scalable infrastructure plans. Meta inks deal with Broadcom for custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street bullishness: Morgan Stanley named META its top tech pick into earnings with a $775 target, and other firms emphasize strong long-term AI-driven upside — supports positive sentiment and buying pressure. Meta Stock Is the Top Pick for Tech Earnings, Morgan Stanley Says. Here's Why.
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamentals/earnings momentum: Meta has a recent history of beating estimates and is expected to continue doing so; analysts highlight revenue and margin strength tied to ads and AI monetization. Why Meta Platforms (META) is Poised to Beat Earnings Estimates Again
• Positive Sentiment: Operational focus on AI/hardware execution: Meta is reorganizing Reality Labs and creating an Applied AI Engineering division to accelerate product execution — a sign management is prioritizing speed on high‑investment initiatives. Meta Makes Major Changes to Speed Reality Labs' Progress
• Neutral Sentiment: Product experiments: Meta is developing an internal, photorealistic AI replica of CEO Mark Zuckerberg for employee engagement — interesting for culture and demo value but uncertain near-term revenue impact. Meta Platforms Is Building a Mark Zuckerberg AI Bot. Does That Matter for META Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Board/governance moves announced recently — likely manageable but worth tracking for any strategic implications. Meta Platforms Announces Upcoming Board of Directors Changes
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are preparing orders to force Meta to restore rival AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp after Meta imposed access fees — a direct regulatory threat that could limit Meta’s product control and create compliance costs. EU warns Meta WhatsApp AI fee breaches antitrust rules, orders rollback
• Negative Sentiment: Legal exposure: An Italian court allowed a class action over Facebook data scraping — another regulatory/legal headline that adds to GDPR-era litigation risk in Europe. Italy court allows class action against Meta over Facebook data scraping
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Javier Olivan executed Rule 10b5-1 sales totaling several thousand shares on April 13 — disclosed trades reduce his holdings materially; trades were under pre-arranged plans but can create short-term perception pressure. SEC filing: Javier Olivan insider sales
• Negative Sentiment: Some sell-side caution: recent price-target cuts and a pessimistic note from Stifel flag near-term upside risks despite the longer-term bull case. Meta Platforms (META) Price Target Reduced by $95 Amid Market Volatility Stifel Nicolaus Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META Stock Price

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on META shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $860.00 price objective (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $837.72.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ:META opened at $671.58 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $626.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $652.04. The company has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. The trade was a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total value of $366,571.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,797,952.54. This trade represents a 11.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,499 shares of company stock worth $105,237,895. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company 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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