Advisory Services Network LLC Buys 1,936 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 81,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,936 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 0.9% of Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $59,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.9% in the third quarter. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC now owns 855 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $628,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.8% during the third quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 1,097 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $806,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 709.9% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 130,010 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $95,433,000 after acquiring an additional 113,958 shares during the period. Corus Family Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 15.0% during the third quarter. Corus Family Wealth Advisors now owns 960 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $705,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Finally, U S Wealth Group LLC. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. U S Wealth Group LLC. now owns 8,081 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,935,000 after acquiring an additional 1,138 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $634.94, for a total transaction of $587,954.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,187 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,642,833.78. The trade was a 5.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 159,830 shares of company stock worth $102,409,190 in the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Global user engagement is rising — Meta reported ~17% higher total time spent year‑over‑year across its platforms, which supports ad monetization and long‑term revenue growth. InsiderMonkey: User Engagement
• Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled four MTIA custom AI chips and explicitly confirmed the Broadcom (AVGO) partnership — a move that helps scale inference workloads efficiently and could improve unit economics as GenAI inference rolls out. Meta AI blog: MTIA chips
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and buy‑the‑dip voices remain mixed but constructive — several pieces argue fundamentals (mid‑20% revenue growth last year, high margins) justify buying on weakness; JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight with a high target. Fool: Buy on pullback Finbold: JPMorgan target
• Neutral Sentiment: Smaller partner news (MONAT integration) expands social‑commerce use cases but is unlikely to move Meta’s top‑line materially in the near term. GlobeNewswire: MONAT integration
• Negative Sentiment: Huge AI infrastructure commitments — public reports show Meta has signed supply agreements (up to ~$27B with Nebius and large third‑party commitments) and is planning very large AI‑related CapEx — raising near‑term cash and margin pressure perceptions. CNBC: $27B Nebius deal
• Negative Sentiment: Layoff reports and related uncertainty — multiple outlets cite that Meta is considering cuts up to ~20% of staff to offset AI costs; that spurs short‑term volatility even if intended to improve long‑term efficiency. Reuters: Layoff report CNET: Workforce/AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and execution risks — reports of delays in Meta’s latest AI model and heightened scrutiny (e.g., China probing the Manus acquisition) increase downside risk and geopolitical/regulatory uncertainty. NYTimes: China scrutiny Fool: AI model delay

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the company 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 given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $622.66 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.50, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $651.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $675.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The business 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 quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued 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 payout ratio is currently 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.