Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. Invests $13.60 Million in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 18,525 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,604,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Princeton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.5% in the third quarter. Princeton Capital Management LLC now owns 4,224 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,102,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC now owns 1,311 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $962,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC now owns 13,533 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,938,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 39.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 9,310 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,837,000 after purchasing an additional 2,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, White Pine Capital LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. White Pine Capital LLC now owns 4,493 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,300,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on META shares. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, November 24th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wedbush increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $900.00 price objective (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reported multiyear deal to rent Google’s TPU chips to accelerate model training — expands Meta’s compute capacity quickly without buying all hardware, supporting AI roadmap and ad/AI monetization prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Deal with AMD for GPUs and plans for very large 2026 capex (reported commitments and nuclear power pacts) strengthen Meta’s in‑house training scale and long‑term AI competitiveness, which investors view as revenue‑accretive over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is trialing stablecoin payments across Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, targeting faster payments and adoption in underbanked markets — a potential new revenue stream and higher engagement in emerging markets. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company sued advertisers over celebrity‑impersonation scams and took technical enforcement actions — a move to shore up ad quality and preserve advertiser trust. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI hired a high‑profile Meta AI researcher — talent movement highlights competition for AI engineers but is common across the sector and not unique to Meta. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/industry comparisons show Alphabet gaining share in AI‑fuelled search and investing aggressively — useful context for competitive positioning but not an immediate earnings event. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: EU court adviser sided with regulators in a dispute over antitrust data requests — raises regulatory/compliance risk and potential costs in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High‑profile US trial testimony about social‑media harms and new Instagram parent‑alert policies keep litigation and reputational risk elevated, which can pressure sentiment and regulatory scrutiny. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales by CFO Susan Li (55,702 shares) and recent COO selling may be read negatively by some investors, adding near‑term selling pressure despite common non‑signal reasons for sales; SEC filing available. Read More.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.3%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $648.18 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $655.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $685.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $8.02 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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 $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 55,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $633.61, for a total value of $35,293,344.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,354,781.46. This represents a 80.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 103,837 shares of company stock worth $66,356,760. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.