Greenwood Capital Associates LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Greenwood Capital Associates LLC increased its stake in Meta by 6.5% to 13,909 shares (worth about $9.18M), representing roughly 1.0% of its portfolio and its 24th largest holding.
• Meta struck a multiyear deal to deploy tens of millions of AWS Graviton5 cores for AI workloads and announced plans to cut ~10% of its workforce and freeze hiring to offset AI investments, a move viewed as cost-efficient but posing execution and morale risks.
• Insider sales totaled 166,117 shares (~$106M) over the last 90 days (insiders own 13.61%), while analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $837.09.

Greenwood Capital Associates LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,909 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.0% of Greenwood Capital Associates LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $9,181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $26,000. Dorato Capital Management bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $62,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 64.8% in the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, eCIO Inc. bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $66,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on META. Pivotal Research lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Arete Research reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $837.09.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $667.00, for a total transaction of $386,860.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,847 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,565,949. This trade represents a 13.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $680.09, for a total value of $629,763.34. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,549,946.79. This trade represents a 8.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 166,117 shares of company stock worth $106,367,778. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta signed a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement to deploy tens of millions of AWS Graviton5 cores to power its agentic AI workloads — investors view this as a scalable, cost-efficient way to boost AI capacity and cut future capex risk. Meta strikes deal with Amazon's cloud unit to use its CPU chips
• Positive Sentiment: Management announced plans to cut ~10% of the workforce (~8,000 roles) and freeze hiring for ~6,000 openings to "run more efficiently" and offset AI investments — a move markets often reward when paired with heavy AI capex. Meta will cut 10% of workforce as it pushes more into AI
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and buy-side interest (price-target upgrades and bullish notes on AI-driven ad monetization) are reinforcing the upside narrative around revenue and margins. Guggenheim reaffirms buy and sets $850 target
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales by the COO were disclosed (executed under a Rule 10b5‑1 plan) — routine but noted by traders watching insider activity. SEC filing: Javier Olivan insider sales
• Negative Sentiment: Staff reactions describe weeks of limbo and morale damage ("28 days of hell") ahead of the May cuts, raising execution and product-risk concerns if key teams are disrupted. Meta employees react to pending job cuts
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta is tracking employee keystrokes and web usage to train AI models raise privacy/ethical questions and potential regulatory scrutiny that could create reputational or legal costs. Meta is tracking employee usage for AI training
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing legal/ESG pressures (court rulings, shareholder proposals on human rights and AI energy/climate impacts) remain a medium-term headwind for sentiment and could spur additional disclosures or costs. Meta faces new ESG pressures

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $675.50 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $628.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $649.62.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.83 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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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