Close Asset Management Ltd Sells 2,290 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Close Asset Management Ltd lowered its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 36,967 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,290 shares during the quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $27,144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lansing Street Advisors raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 1,927 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,415,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.4% in the third quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,592 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $21,732,000 after acquiring an additional 1,247 shares during the period. 360 Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.0% in the third quarter. 360 Financial Inc. now owns 1,340 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $984,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Kaizen Financial Strategies raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 7.6% during the third quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 2,007 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chaney Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $1,584,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued 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 issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $667.73 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $655.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $682.65.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released 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. 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid 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 currently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total value of $1,574,473.97. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,927 shares of company stock worth $103,155,254. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: News Corp signed a multiyear AI content-licensing deal that gives Meta paid access to US/UK newsroom content for model training and retrieval — reduces legal risk around training data and improves quality of AI outputs. News Corp licensing deal
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is forming a new applied AI engineering organization (flat structure, close partnership with its Superintelligence Lab/Reality Labs) to speed model development — signals continued R&D investment that supports future AI product rollouts and monetization. Applied AI org
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Meta is testing an AI-powered shopping research tool inside its chatbot — a direct move to expand commerce monetization beyond ads if rolled out at scale. AI shopping tool test
• Neutral Sentiment: Policy/power risk for data centers: the White House discussion on data-center self-supplied power and energy-cost pledges creates regulatory and capex uncertainty for operators (including hyperscalers). It’s a macro/legal issue rather than a Meta-specific earnings shock for now. Data center power policy
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are re‑examining Meta’s valuation after a strong multi‑year run; useful context for positioning but not an immediate catalyst. Valuation analysis
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares (~$36.5M) in a disclosed SEC filing — large insider sales can spook retail investors even if done under pre-set plans. SEC filing – insider sale
• Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced outages for thousands of U.S. users (Downdetector/Reuters) — a short-term engagement and reputation hit that can transiently pressure ad impressions and sentiment. Outage report
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta scaled back parts of its custom “Olympus” AI accelerator program highlight execution risk and likely greater near‑term reliance on external GPU suppliers — a potential margin/capex and partner-concentration consideration. Chip program pullback

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.