Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT Boosts Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 31.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,269 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.1% of Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total value of $604,381.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 17,039 shares in the company, valued at $11,121,014.52. This represents a 5.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 103,837 shares of company stock worth $66,356,760 in the last 90 days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $648.18 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $655.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $685.97. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $8.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reported multiyear deal to rent Google’s TPU chips to accelerate model training — expands Meta’s compute capacity quickly without buying all hardware, supporting AI roadmap and ad/AI monetization prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Deal with AMD for GPUs and plans for very large 2026 capex (reported commitments and nuclear power pacts) strengthen Meta’s in‑house training scale and long‑term AI competitiveness, which investors view as revenue‑accretive over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is trialing stablecoin payments across Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, targeting faster payments and adoption in underbanked markets — a potential new revenue stream and higher engagement in emerging markets. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company sued advertisers over celebrity‑impersonation scams and took technical enforcement actions — a move to shore up ad quality and preserve advertiser trust. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI hired a high‑profile Meta AI researcher — talent movement highlights competition for AI engineers but is common across the sector and not unique to Meta. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/industry comparisons show Alphabet gaining share in AI‑fuelled search and investing aggressively — useful context for competitive positioning but not an immediate earnings event. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: EU court adviser sided with regulators in a dispute over antitrust data requests — raises regulatory/compliance risk and potential costs in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High‑profile US trial testimony about social‑media harms and new Instagram parent‑alert policies keep litigation and reputational risk elevated, which can pressure sentiment and regulatory scrutiny. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales by CFO Susan Li (55,702 shares) and recent COO selling may be read negatively by some investors, adding near‑term selling pressure despite common non‑signal reasons for sales; SEC filing available. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on META. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $800.00 price target (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

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.