DNB Asset Management AS Reduces Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

DNB Asset Management AS trimmed its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 11.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,194,302 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 159,461 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 3.3% of DNB Asset Management AS’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. DNB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $877,072,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goldstone Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 44.4% during the third quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,756,000 after purchasing an additional 1,153 shares during the period. CW Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 27.8% in the second quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 176,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $130,467,000 after buying an additional 38,432 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 34.2% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $38,373,000 after buying an additional 13,311 shares during the period. Cherokee Insurance Co acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,321,000. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 36.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 3,134 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 840 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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 Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $667.73 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $655.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $682.65. 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 $1.69 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 quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion for 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $8.02 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total value of $370,724.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,200,374.26. This trade represents a 10.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 160,927 shares of company stock valued at $103,155,254. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

META has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 price objective (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Raymond James Financial decreased 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.