Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Position Increased by Bleakley Financial Group LLC

Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 77,420 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,586 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.3% of Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $56,855,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.3%

NASDAQ META opened at $648.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $655.83 and its 200 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 market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

META has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $646.00, for a total transaction of $374,680.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,983,882. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760. 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: 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.

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.