Palacios Wealth Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Palacios Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 13.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,078 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 866 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up about 3.4% of Palacios Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Palacios Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $44,000. WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $658.69, for a total transaction of $341,860.11. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 28,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,876,738.02. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $663.19, for a total value of $342,869.23. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,098 shares in the company, valued at $6,033,702.62. The trade was a 5.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 23,413 shares of company stock worth $14,472,032 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research lowered Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 26th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.50.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: High‑profile institutional support: Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has taken a multi‑billion dollar stake, signaling confidence in Meta’s AI pivot and likely attracting other institutional interest. Ackman stake
• Positive Sentiment: Strong fundamentals and analyst upside: Q4 earnings beat and bullish analyst notes (multiple price‑target raises and buy reiterations) support a constructive medium‑term view. Seeking Alpha bullish note
• Positive Sentiment: Hardware and AI investments showing early traction: Ray‑Ban AI glasses sales growth and Reality Labs repositioning give optionality beyond ads. Ray‑Ban sales
• Neutral Sentiment: Dividend declared: Meta announced a $0.525 quarterly dividend (small yield) — positive for income investors but modest versus total return expectations. Dividend PR
• Neutral Sentiment: Large capex for AI: Meta broke ground on a ~$10B data‑center campus to boost AI compute — strengthens long‑term ad/AI moat but raises near‑term capex. Data center Reuters
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider/ownership moves mixed: CEO/COO small routine sales and some funds trimming while others add — notable but not a clear directional signal alone. SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy and reputational risk from facial‑recognition plans for Ray‑Ban AI glasses: Reports that Meta plans a “Name Tag” feature have triggered renewed privacy concerns and could draw regulatory scrutiny or user backlash. NYT facial recognition
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/access hit: Russia moved to block WhatsApp for ~100M users, a material engagement loss in that market. WhatsApp block
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and litigation noise: Ongoing trials and witness testimony alleging platform harm raise litigation/ reputational risk that can pressure sentiment and potentially cost fines or operational changes. Trial coverage

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $639.77 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day moving average is $657.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $693.34.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be 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 is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.