Means Investment CO. Inc. Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Means Investment CO. Inc. increased its stake in Meta by 3.5% to 31,383 shares valued at $20.716 million, representing about 1.7% of the fund's portfolio and its 15th-largest holding.
• Meta is accelerating its AI push — signing a multibillion-dollar deal to use AWS Graviton5 cores and announcing roughly a 10% workforce cut (~8,000 roles) plus a hiring freeze to fund AI investments, while analysts have raised price targets and MarketBeat's consensus rating is "Moderate Buy" with a $837.09 target.
• Insider activity and ownership dynamics: insiders sold 166,117 shares (~$106.4M) in the last three months (including COO and a director), even as institutional investors own about 79.9% of the stock.

Means Investment CO. Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,383 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 1.7% of Means Investment CO. Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Means Investment CO. Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $20,716,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,247,690 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $28,823,375,000 after buying an additional 278,180 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,153,754 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $12,597,374,000 after buying an additional 142,229 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,332,168 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $10,525,258,000 after buying an additional 558,792 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 13,619,341 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $10,001,772,000 after buying an additional 481,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $680.09, for a total value of $629,763.34. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,631 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,549,946.79. This trade represents a 8.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 3,847 shares in the company, valued at $2,565,949. This represents a 13.10% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 166,117 shares of company stock worth $106,367,778 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $872.00 to $908.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Pivotal Research cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $837.09.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $675.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $628.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $649.62. 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 (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The business's revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $8.02 EPS. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.83 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid 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 yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.94%.

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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