Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC Has $10.02 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 488.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,646 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,327 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 2.1% of Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Bedell Frazier Investment Counselling LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $10,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of Meta Platforms 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 value of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 160,927 shares of company stock worth $103,155,254. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Closed multiyear AI/content and chip-supply deals that should improve model training quality and reduce sourcing risk — supports AI product road map and longer-term ad/engagement upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Signed paid content-licensing arrangements (reported coverage highlights a News Corp deal) and created a new applied-AI engineering organization to speed model development — both point to faster commercialization of AI features that can lift ad yields. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent investors and some brokers continue to list META as a buy or top idea (e.g., inclusion on Bill Ackman-related lists and select upgrades), supporting demand from long-term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presented at investor conferences and several sell‑side reports reiterated valuation/scale arguments — useful for analyst color but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street downgrades and cut price targets citing concerns that Meta is “lagging on AI” — raises short-term growth and competition worries and likely contributed to intraday selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed: CFO Susan Li sold roughly $36.5M and COO Javier Olivan also executed significant sales — while often planned (tax/vesting), these filers increase headline risk and can create short-term supply. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and competition pressure in Europe and Indonesia — Meta agreed to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Europe (for a fee) to head off EU action, and Indonesia issued warnings over disinformation and algorithm transparency, adding compliance and revenue uncertainty in key markets. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: 13F filings show several high‑profile managers trimmed or exited META in Q4 — signals profit‑taking and reduced conviction from some large investors. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on META. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $644.86 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $654.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $681.65.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis 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%.

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.