Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Has $293.30 Million Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lessened its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 399,390 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 13,504 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.1% of Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $293,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total value of $604,381.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 17,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,121,014.52. The trade was a 5.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank lowered Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Pivotal Research lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $1,117.00 to $1,144.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $800.00 price target (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.44.

More Meta Platforms News

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 Price Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $648.18 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.58, a PEG 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $655.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $685.97.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $8.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. 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 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.