Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC lessened its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 98.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 338 shares of the social networking company's stock after selling 25,356 shares during the period. Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $223,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 112,000 shares during the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $322,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 166,638 shares of company stock valued at $106,697,681. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Friday, March 27th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $760.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $840.31.
View Our Latest Report on META
Meta Platforms News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Meta is building an advanced, agentic consumer AI assistant and simpler consumer AI agents — a potential long-term product/monetization catalyst that supports future revenue growth. FT/Reuters: Agentic AI
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to rate Meta as a buy/outperform despite trimming price targets — signalling continued analyst conviction in upside from ads and AI monetization. Benzinga: Mizuho PT note
- Neutral Sentiment: Meta will expand AI-powered teen safeguards and roll out age‑verification tech (including photo/video analysis) across EU countries and Facebook in the U.S.; this reduces regulatory risk but could slightly affect engagement metrics. Reuters: teen safeguards
- Neutral Sentiment: Meta is pursuing a ~ $13 billion financing package for a major El Paso data‑centre project and continues large-scale capital commitments — supports growth capacity but increases near‑term capex and leverage considerations. Reuters: El Paso financing
- Negative Sentiment: Major publishers (Elsevier, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Hachette, etc.) sued Meta in Manhattan federal court alleging copyright infringement for using books/journals to train Llama — litigation could lead to damages, injunctive limits on training data or costly settlements. Reuters: publishers sue
- Negative Sentiment: Ongoing New Mexico child‑safety litigation remains a major overhang — the state is seeking up to $3.7B and structural changes; an adverse remedy could be costly and set precedents for other states. CNBC: New Mexico case
- Negative Sentiment: Regulatory pressure in Europe and Ireland is rising — probes into algorithmic steering on Instagram/Facebook and EU antitrust attention over WhatsApp chatbot access raise risks of fines, mandated changes or operational constraints. Reuters: EU/antitrust probes
- Negative Sentiment: Shareholder and litigation scrutiny of governance and AI practices: a board fiduciary‑duty probe and critical reporting (Pulitzer for investigations) amplify reputational/legal risk that can pressure sentiment. PRNews: board probe
Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.9%
Shares of META stock opened at $604.96 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $520.26 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.99, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.25. The firm's 50-day moving average is $628.61 and its 200-day moving average is $646.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a current ratio of 2.35.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The social networking company reported $10.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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%.Meta Platforms's quarterly revenue was up 33.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $6.43 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.59 EPS for the current year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is currently 7.63%.
Meta Platforms Company Profile
(
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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