Anfield Capital Management LLC Sells 2,046 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Anfield Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 81.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 464 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,046 shares during the period. Anfield Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ninepoint Partners LP lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 1,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,152,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 678.1% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 26,939 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $19,783,000 after purchasing an additional 23,477 shares during the last quarter. Caitlin John LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the third quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 2,406 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,767,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Clare Market Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clare Market Investments LLC now owns 30,901 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $22,693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 1,257 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:META opened at $660.41 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $655.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $682.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a multiyear AI content‑licensing deal with News Corp that provides paid access to news content for training/retrieval — supports AI product quality and reduces legal/quality risk around training data. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Created a new applied AI engineering organization to speed model development and partner with its Superintelligence Lab — signals accelerated product rollout and continued R&D investment that can boost ad/product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group upgraded META from “hold” to “buy”, adding a positive analyst catalyst that can support demand in the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presentation at Morgan Stanley TMT conference provided additional management commentary and analyst color — useful for positioning but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating, offering little directional pressure today.
• Negative Sentiment: Under EU antitrust pressure, Meta will allow rival AI chatbots onto WhatsApp in Europe (via its Business API) for a fee for the next 12 months — a concession that reduces immediate regulatory risk but highlights EU scrutiny and could erode WhatsApp exclusivity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed this week — CFO Susan Li sold ~56,571 shares (~$36.5M) and COO Javier Olivan also sold shares — which can create headline pressure and short‑term selling even if plan‑driven. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure from Indonesia, which issued a “stern warning” over disinformation and gambling content and pressed for greater algorithm transparency — potential compliance costs or restrictions in a large market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Operational risks surfaced: recent U.S. user outages (short‑term engagement/ad impression risk) and reports Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI chip effort — the latter could raise execution risk and greater reliance on external GPU suppliers. Read More. • Read More.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on META. Pivotal Research dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Evercore increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Arete Research reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.