Fisher Asset Management LLC Grows Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,496,418 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 139,751 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 1.7% of Fisher Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.26% of Meta Platforms worth $4,770,840,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,212,506,000 after purchasing an additional 8,405,558 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concentrum Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 948.7% in the third quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 1,243,577 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $913,000 after buying an additional 1,124,998 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on META. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 26th. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $850.00 price target (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

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.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $644.86 on Friday. 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 market cap of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $654.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $681.16. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced 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 net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $8.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total value of $590,056.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 16,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,267,364.73. This represents a 5.43% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 160,927 shares of company stock valued at $103,155,254 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.