Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 13,311 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 34.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,311 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.0% of Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $38,373,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of META. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,212,506,000 after acquiring an additional 8,405,558 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 103.5% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,998,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,475,166,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016,667 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square disclosed a roughly $2 billion stake (~10% of the fund), calling META undervalued and an AI beneficiary — a high‑profile institutional endorsement that can attract other buyers and bolster the AI-growth narrative. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.525 per share (payable March 26) — a formal return of capital that supports yield‑seeking investors and signals board confidence in cash flow. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Hardware traction: EssilorLuxottica reported it more than tripled sales of Meta AI (Ray-Ban) glasses in 2025 — evidence Reality Labs products can scale and begin to diversify revenue beyond advertising. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Data center expansion: Meta broke ground on a $10B Indiana data‑center (and another large campus reported elsewhere), strengthening long‑term AI compute capacity that underpins ad/AI initiatives. These are long‑horizon positives but raise near‑term capex. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares (~$343k) in a routine filing; the sale is small relative to total insider holdings and follows a pattern of periodic sales. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Russia block: Russian authorities removed WhatsApp from an official directory and effectively blocked access for ~100M users — a material engagement loss in that market and a nearer‑term revenue/MAU headwind. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and reputational risk: Ongoing trials and testimony (including accusations that products enabled harm) increase litigation exposure and political/regulatory scrutiny that could lead to fines, restrictions or product changes. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Capex/FCF pressure: Coverage of the “Mag‑7” AI arms race highlights heavy industry capex and potential free‑cash‑flow strain — Meta’s big data‑center builds support growth but keep near‑term spending elevated. Article Title

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $1,590,690.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,962,956.64. The trade was a 21.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,570,306. This represents a 10.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 39,078 shares of company stock valued at $24,016,453. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $850.00 price target (up previously from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $785.00 to $820.00 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, forty have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.50.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of META opened at $649.81 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $658.31 and a 200-day moving average of $693.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The company has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th were 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 of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.94%.

Meta Platforms Profile

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.