Farther Finance Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 50,665 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,136 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $37,207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after purchasing an additional 59,766,000 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after purchasing an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at about $23,155,393,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.35, for a total value of $365,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,476,894.45. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,035 shares in the company, valued at $3,570,306. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 42,074 shares of company stock valued at $26,359,548 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $810.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $720.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 price target for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $820.22.

More Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Meta debuted its first augmented‑reality smart glasses and continues to present AR/AI hardware as a multi‑year growth runway that could meaningfully expand monetizable user engagement over time. Long‑term device roadmap commentary supports the AI/AR investment narrative. Billionaires Are Buying an AI Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly positive: many analysts keep Buy/Outperform ratings and elevated price targets (median targets near the low‑to‑mid $800s), reinforcing demand as investors position for AI monetization and ad recovery. Analyst & Social Sentiment
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data for December shows effectively zero days-to-cover in the published snapshot — likely a data anomaly rather than a meaningful shift in positioning; treat as noise until validated by exchanges. (No single authoritative article; internal data feed.)
• Negative Sentiment: Italy’s antitrust regulator ordered Meta to suspend WhatsApp contract terms that could block rival AI chatbots while it investigates abuse of dominance — this escalates EU scrutiny of Meta’s AI integration and could force product/policy changes or fines. Reuters: Italy watchdog
• Negative Sentiment: Policy tests limiting links in Facebook posts (paywalls/URL limits for non‑verified users) could hurt creators and small business marketers, risking engagement and ad demand if rolled out broadly. MSN: Link limit impact
• Negative Sentiment: Investor skepticism over Meta’s large AI capex persists — commentators and some analysts question whether the company’s ~$75B AI investment will deliver timely returns, which can pressure sentiment if near‑term margins or cash flow disappoint. YouTube: META’s $75B AI Bet
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling filings (COO Javier Oliván and other officers) have been highlighted by data services; amounts are small vs. total holdings but can be read negatively by short‑term traders. MarketBeat: Insider trades
• Negative Sentiment: Broker/forecast notes (e.g., a pessimistic Baird piece cited) add near‑term target downside narratives that can amplify volatility when paired with regulatory headlines. AmericanBankingNews: Baird forecast

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META stock opened at $666.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $655.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $706.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 39.35%. The company had revenue of $51.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 9.28%.

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.