Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC's 8th Largest Position

Key Points

• Stratos Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in Meta by 13.5% in Q4 to 44,157 shares (worth $29.15M), making Meta its eighth-largest position and 1.4% of its holdings.
• Significant insider selling has occurred recently — CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares for $36.47M and insiders have sold 160,931 shares worth about $103M over the last 90 days, while insiders still own 13.61% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but overall positive (MarketBeat consensus: Moderate Buy, average target $838.04), driven by AI catalysts like the Muse Spark launch and a $21B CoreWeave deal, offset by rising legal risk after a Massachusetts court ruled Meta must face a youth‑addiction lawsuit.

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,157 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,268 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up 1.4% of Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $29,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Stratos Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 26,288 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $17,353,000 after buying an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 17,318 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $11,431,000 after buying an additional 4,226 shares in the last quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 9,936 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,585,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 9,363 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $6,181,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Red Door Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 131.6% in the fourth quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,424 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $16,782,000 after buying an additional 14,447 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Wolfe Research cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Roth Mkm cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Arete Research reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $838.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 transaction of $560,581.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,335 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,072,742.30. This trade represents a 6.49% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 160,931 shares of company stock worth $102,997,526 over the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Headlines 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

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $629.83 on Friday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $628.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $654.74. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 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.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $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 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. 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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