NBT Bank N A NY Increases Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

NBT Bank N A NY lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,691 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 774 shares during the period. NBT Bank N A NY’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $6,632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,489,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,694,644,000 after acquiring an additional 262,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Threads ad rollout expands immediate ad-monetization optionality for a 400M+ MAU product, supporting near-term revenue upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and investors point to attractive valuation after the pullback (multiple firms reiterating buys and high price targets), encouraging value-oriented buying. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational/tech progress: Meta’s AI lab reportedly delivered its first in-house models, a signal that internal AI capability is advancing and could support future product monetization and efficiency gains. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Hardware/metaverse upside: TD Cowen raised its PT and Meta plans to ramp Meta Glasses production, which supports longer-term diversification of revenue streams. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta suspended teen access to its AI characters globally while it builds a teen-specific version — a precautionary move that reduces regulatory/PR risk but could slow feature engagement and short-term monetization from those users. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming earnings (Jan. 28) and especially 2026 CapEx guidance are the primary near-term catalysts — strong revenue/AI updates could lift shares, while higher-than-expected CapEx would likely pressure the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: COO Javier Oliván’s routine share sales continue to be disclosed; amounts are modest relative to his holdings and the company, so impact is limited. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: UK regulator Ofcom opened an investigation into Meta’s responsiveness on WhatsApp data requests, increasing compliance uncertainty in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk: Meta is contesting evidence limits ahead of a New Mexico child-safety trial — unfavorable rulings or negative publicity could weigh on sentiment. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst pressure: Some firms have trimmed price targets (Stifel cut its PT; UBS trimmed earlier), reflecting sensitivity to guidance and spending — these moves can cap near-term upside if guidance disappoints. Read More.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $658.76 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $642.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $696.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 1.98. The company has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.29. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on META shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $920.00 to $880.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $900.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-seven have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $818.57.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $658.69, for a total value of $341,860.11. Following the sale, the insider owned 28,658 shares in the company, valued at $18,876,738.02. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.28, for a total transaction of $358,602.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,454,330.36. This represents a 9.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 40,115 shares of company stock valued at $24,668,044 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.