Blair William & Co. IL Acquires 102,259 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 678,857 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 102,259 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.3% of Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $498,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on META. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial decreased their target price 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, December 29th. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:META opened at $654.86 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $654.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $679.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 161,446 shares of company stock worth $103,451,688 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Rolled out a roadmap of four new in‑house AI chips to expand data‑center capacity and cut dependence on third‑party hardware — a move that should lower long‑term costs and support Meta’s AI scale and margins. Meta unveils plans for batch of in-house AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Acquired Moltbook, a viral social network for AI agents, and brought its founders into Meta’s Superintelligence Labs — an inexpensive talent & capability win that reinforces Meta’s AI roadmap and content‑generation/testing capabilities. Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook
• Positive Sentiment: Launched AI‑powered anti‑scam tools across WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger — a user‑safety boost that can protect engagement and advertiser confidence on its platforms. Meta rolls out new scam detection tools to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger
• Neutral Sentiment: Street commentary (Evercore/Barron’s) suggests internet names including META may be oversold after AI worries and geopolitical risk — a catalyst that could attract value buyers but depends on macro sentiment. Amazon, Uber, and Other Internet Stocks Look Too Cheap After AI and Iran Worries
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Javier Olivan sold multiple blocks of shares (hundreds of shares reported), trimming his position — a near‑term negative signal that can weigh on sentiment even if routine. SEC filing: Javier Olivan sales
• Negative Sentiment: Announced a 2–5% “location fee” for advertisers to cover some European digital taxes — could pressure ad rates/advertiser spend in affected markets and be a small drag on revenue growth. Meta to charge advertisers a fee to offset Europe’s digital taxes
• Negative Sentiment: Dutch appeals court upheld a ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds in the Netherlands — a regulatory loss that could affect engagement/personalization and set precedents for further restrictions. Dutch court upholds ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds

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.