Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 1.1% on Insider Selling

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price was down 1.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $650.31 and last traded at $660.57. Approximately 13,254,022 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 14% from the average daily volume of 15,384,882 shares. The stock had previously closed at $667.73.

Specifically, COO Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total transaction of $400,805.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 2,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,802,029.88. This represents a 18.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total transaction of $590,056.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 16,113 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,267,364.73. The trade was a 5.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Arete Research reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Pivotal Research cut their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

More Meta Platforms News

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.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%

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 company has a market cap of $1.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s fifty day moving average is $655.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $682.50.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Meta Platforms by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after acquiring an additional 310,947 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,553,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,788,429,000 after acquiring an additional 823,883 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

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.