Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Empirical Asset Management LLC’s 7th Largest Position

Empirical Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 197.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,792 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 14,454 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 2.4% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the period. Headwater Capital Co Ltd grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% during the 1st quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares during the period. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,117.00 to $1,144.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Three equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total transaction of $370,724.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,007 shares in the company, valued at $3,200,374.26. The trade was a 10.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 159,372 shares of company stock valued at $102,164,393. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $654.99 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.87, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $655.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $682.76.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Meta Platforms 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.