Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Bought by Equitable Trust Co.

Equitable Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,628 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 980 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.9% of Equitable Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,821,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 42.6% in the 2nd quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Truist Financial raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $850.00 price target (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,117.00 to $1,144.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of META stock opened at $648.18 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $655.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $685.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $8.02 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were 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 $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 55,702 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $633.61, for a total transaction of $35,293,344.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,354,781.46. This represents a 80.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.