Genesis Financial Group LLC Acquires New Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Genesis Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 16,662 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,998,000. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 6.4% of Genesis Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vista Capital Partners Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Trust Co of the South grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 1,850 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,359,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the third quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 915 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $672,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 4,301 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,159,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total value of $366,571.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,797,952.54. The trade was a 11.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 13,335 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,072,742.30. The trade was a 6.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 160,931 shares of company stock valued at $102,997,526. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled Muse Spark, the first model from its Superintelligence Labs — positioned as a natively multimodal reasoning system with multi-agent orchestration and faster rollouts across Meta AI, apps, and upcoming devices; investors view this as a concrete step to close the gap with peers and boost AI-driven ad products. Meta unveils first AI model from superintelligence team (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Market-wide rally after a temporary Iran ceasefire lifted tech stocks broadly — as a Magnificent Seven heavyweight, META benefitted from sector flows and reduced macro risk premium. Tech stocks rally after Iran ceasefire (CNBC)
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s shutdown of Sora removes a direct short-form-video challenger, reinforcing the economics of Meta’s integrated Reels approach (AI+human content inside an existing ad engine) and lowering competitive risk to Reels monetization. OpenAI Shutters Sora: A Win for Meta Platforms (MarketBeat)
• Positive Sentiment: Reports of strong ad-revenue growth and partnerships (including a PayPal tie-up noted by some outlets) are renewing confidence that Meta’s core monetization can accelerate alongside AI product upgrades. Ad growth and PayPal partnership boost (247wallst)
• Neutral Sentiment: Early analyst/market positioning remains constructive: high hedge-fund ownership and bullish consensus price targets imply upside expectations, but these are already partly priced into the multiple. Hedge fund ownership and analyst optimism (InsiderMonkey)
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Muse Spark is mixed — outlets note meaningful improvements vs. Meta’s prior models but also weaknesses (e.g., coding performance still trails top rivals), so execution and benchmarks will matter for sustained upside. Muse Spark review and limitations (NYT)
• Negative Sentiment: An analyst downgrade to “Hold” and continuing investor concerns about heavy AI spending, layoff headlines, and legal exposures remain near-term risk factors that could cap gains if execution or margins disappoint. Analyst downgrades Meta to Hold (Yahoo Finance)

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Mizuho increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Scotiabank boosted their price target 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. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $843.57.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $612.42 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $632.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $655.87.

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, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 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.