Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Sells 3,210 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. cut its stake in Meta by 53.8% in Q4, selling 3,210 shares and leaving 2,758 shares worth $1.821 million at the end of the period.
• Insider selling has been significant—166,117 shares (~$106.37M) sold over the past 90 days (including COO Javier Olivan and CFO Susan J. Li); insiders own 13.61% of Meta while institutions hold 79.91%.
• Meta is trimming ~10% of its workforce (~8,000 roles) while signing a multiyear AWS Graviton5 deal to expand AI capacity, and analysts maintain a "Moderate Buy" consensus with an average price target of about $837.09.

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. lowered its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 53.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,758 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 3,210 shares during the period. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,821,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 294.7% during the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $86,454,000 after buying an additional 112,000 shares during the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $322,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 10,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 166,117 shares of company stock valued at $106,367,778. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research cut their target price 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. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $805.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $837.09.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:META opened at $675.50 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $520.26 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $628.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $650.06.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

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

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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