Citizens Business Bank Invests $680,000 in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Citizens Business Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 926 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $680,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,212,506,000 after buying an additional 8,405,558 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,650,435 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 948.7% in the third quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 1,243,577 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $913,000 after acquiring an additional 1,124,998 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total transaction of $370,724.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,200,374.26. This trade represents a 10.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total transaction of $604,381.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 17,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,121,014.52. This trade represents a 5.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 159,372 shares of company stock worth $102,164,393. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price 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. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three 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.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of META opened at $654.99 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $655.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $682.76. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The company’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $8.02 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Multiyear content-licensing agreement with News Corp provides paid training data and retrieval content for Meta’s AI tools, likely supporting AI product quality and potential revenue/licensing synergies. News Corp licensing deal
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is testing an AI-powered shopping research tool for its chatbot — a direct product push into commerce via AI that could expand monetization channels beyond ads. AI shopping tool test
• Positive Sentiment: Company is creating a new applied AI engineering org (flat structure, high IC:manager ratios) to speed up its superintelligence / Reality Labs AI work — signals continued R&D investment that supports long-term AI roadmap. Applied AI org
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are reassessing Meta’s valuation after a strong multi‑year run; some analyses describe the stock as reasonably priced given scale and profit margins — useful context for investors but not an immediate catalyst. Valuation analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Marketwide volatility (geopolitical tensions) is weighing on tech names broadly and could pressure META alongside peers; this is a macro headwind rather than company-specific news. Macro risk note
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares (~$36.5M) under a disclosed SEC filing; large insider sales can cause short-term investor concern even if executed via pre-set plans. SEC filing – insider sale
• Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced outages for thousands of U.S. users (Downdetector reports), a short-term engagement/reputation hit that could transiently pressure ad impressions and sentiment. Outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Reports say Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI accelerator program, highlighting execution risks in custom silicon and likely increasing dependence on external GPU suppliers (Nvidia/AMD) — strategic cost/partner implications. Chip program pullback

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.