Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Grows Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Key Points

• Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.4% in Q4, buying 5,984 shares to hold 116,773 shares worth $77,081,000, which is 0.9% of its portfolio and the firm's 18th largest position.
• Significant insider selling has occurred recently — CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares for about $36.47M, directors and other insiders have sold a total of 160,931 shares (~$103.0M) over the past 90 days, while corporate insiders still own 13.61% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive with an average target price of $838.04 and several upgrades tied to Meta's AI progress (e.g., Muse Spark) and a $21B CoreWeave compute deal, though litigation and regulatory risks from youth‑addiction lawsuits remain a key downside.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 116,773 shares of the social networking company's stock after buying an additional 5,984 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 0.9% of Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.'s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $77,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second 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 grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third 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. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the third 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 grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the third 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 grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.7% during the third 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. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the subject of several research reports. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $872.00 target price (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Four investment 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, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $838.04.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total transaction of $366,571.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,427 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,797,952.54. This represents a 11.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 160,931 shares of company stock valued at $102,997,526 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company's stock.

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 Trading Up 0.2%

META opened at $629.83 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.31. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $628.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $654.74. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

About Meta Platforms

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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