Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,270 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 839 shares during the quarter. Quent Capital LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,119,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,000. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 36.8% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 78 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Dorato Capital Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Finally, PMV Capital Advisers LLC lifted 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 valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several brokerages have commented on META. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Citizens Jmp restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $900.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Argus restated a "buy" rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $840.31.
Check Out Our Latest Report on META
Insider Activity
In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. The trade was a 20.83% 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 168,193 shares of company stock valued at $107,642,717 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Meta Platforms Stock Performance
Shares of META stock opened at $612.88 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $628.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $646.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $3.77. The business had revenue of $56.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $55.56 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 36.93% and a net margin of 32.84%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.43 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 30.03 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 7.63%.
Key Meta Platforms News
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 execution — analysts and coverage emphasize Meta's beat on revenue and EPS and continued ad/margin strength, underpinning investor confidence in cash flow to fund AI investment. Meta: Keep Calm And Focus On Muse, Spark, And Record Revenue Growth
- Positive Sentiment: AI product roadmap — multiple reports (FT/Reuters) say Meta is building advanced, agentic personal AI assistants and consumer-facing agents, reinforcing the company's long-term TAM for AI monetization. This helps justify heavy capex for AI infrastructure. Meta plans advanced 'agentic' AI assistant for users, FT reports
- Positive Sentiment: Capex demand signal from suppliers — a MarketBeat piece highlights Corning's $6B supply deal with Meta as part of hyperscale optical contracts, signaling durable infrastructure spend that supports Meta’s AI buildout. Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth
- Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity — Meta COO Javier Olivan sold shares via a pre-arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan (reported May 4), reducing his holdings; typical for planned programmatic selling and not an immediate red flag. SEC Filing: Javier Olivan ownership
- Neutral Sentiment: Analyst moves — Mizuho trimmed its price target slightly (from $850 to $835) but kept an outperform view, reflecting continued bullishness despite higher AI spending and elevated valuation debate. Benzinga coverage
- Negative Sentiment: Copyright suits and publisher litigation — major publishers (Elsevier, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, etc.) filed suits alleging Meta used copyrighted works to train Llama; litigation could lead to damages or costly settlements and increases model deployment risk. Major publishers sue Meta for copyright infringement over AI training
- Negative Sentiment: Regulatory & litigation pressure — Meta asked a judge to overturn a landmark social‑media addiction verdict and faces state actions seeking large damages; EU/Irish probes and potential orders on WhatsApp also raise compliance costs and uncertainty. Meta asks California judge to throw out landmark social media addiction verdict
About Meta Platforms
(
Free Report)
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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