Dakota Wealth Management Reduces Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Dakota Wealth Management lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 73,596 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,788 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 0.9% of Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $48,580,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched new Ray‑Ban prescription smart glasses and Oakley updates that add hands‑free features (nutrition logging, real‑time translation), reinforcing growth prospects for Reality Labs and consumer AR wearables. Article Title Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta and Corning broke ground on a large optical‑cable expansion in North Carolina to support AI data‑center buildout—strengthening Meta’s supply chain for AI infrastructure. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market pieces highlight Meta’s AI and engagement feature rollouts (and recent product launches) as drivers for ad growth; buy‑side firms including Morgan Stanley/others continue to call the pullback a tactical buying opportunity. Article Title Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is testing Instagram Plus (paid tier) and other monetization experiments; these could boost ARPU if scaled, but are currently limited pilot programs. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is sharing retail and wearables learnings with partners to help physical retail for its AI/VR products—incremental channel development, uncertain near‑term revenue impact. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Meta suffered two major legal setbacks: a New Mexico ruling holding it accountable for child safety and an LA jury finding apps were designed to addict teens—both raise potential damages, regulatory pressure and litigation risk. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Indonesia summoned Meta over non‑compliance with new rules protecting under‑16 users, and regulators in other markets are flagging potential breaches—heightening compliance costs and moderation burdens. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Meta announced another round of layoffs impacting ~168 Washington state employees, signalling continued cost actions but also operational disruption in key VR/Reality teams. Article Title

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on META. Evercore lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $785.00 to $820.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $845.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total transaction of $366,571.60. Following the sale, the director owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at $2,797,952.54. This represents a 11.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $605.38, for a total value of $560,581.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 13,335 shares in the company, valued at $8,072,742.30. This represents a 6.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 161,448 shares of company stock worth $103,333,788 in the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $572.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.30. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $641.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $663.23. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $8.02 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.