Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Down 1.1% – Here’s Why

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) fell 1.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $614.61 and last traded at $615.68. 11,631,676 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 14,950,524 shares. The stock had previously closed at $622.66.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a 10‑year lease for a five‑story Fifth Avenue flagship to showcase AI glasses, VR/AR hardware and support long‑term retail discovery for hardware sales. Meta converts New York City pop-up store into permanent retail location
• Positive Sentiment: Launched “Creator Fast Track” and broader monetization programs (Meta paid creators nearly $3B in 2025), offering guaranteed monthly payouts to big creators to drive content supply, engagement and ad monetization. Meta will pay Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators with big followings to post on Facebook
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Tigress Financial raised its price target to $945 and maintains a strong‑buy rating, reinforcing bullish analyst conviction about Meta’s recovery and AI-driven growth potential. Benzinga coverage of Tigress price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Confirmed MTIA custom AI chips (developed with Broadcom) expand Meta’s inference capability and support scaling of recommendation and GenAI features — strengthens infrastructure strategy for ad relevance and product experiences. Why Meta’s AI Chip Announcement Has Broadcom Investors Paying Attention
• Neutral Sentiment: Secured a massive AI infra commitment with Nebius (reports of a $27B commitment) that ensures GPU capacity but commits Meta to very large multi‑year spending and vendor dependence. Nebius secures $27B AI infrastructure commitment from Meta Platforms
• Neutral Sentiment: Manus (Meta acquisition) shipped a desktop app to run its AI agent on personal devices — product expansion that could broaden AI usage but is early in monetization. Meta’s Manus launches desktop app to bring its AI agent onto personal devices
• Neutral Sentiment: Partnerships and integrations (e.g., MONAT social‑commerce integration) show platform utility for merchants but are incremental to core ad revenue. MONAT Announces Strategic Integration with Meta
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports of major layoffs and workforce reductions (rumors of up to ~20%) as Meta reallocates spend to AI capex — signals cost cutting but highlights execution risk and potential morale/retention issues. Meta Reportedly Plans Job Cuts as AI Spending Surges
• Negative Sentiment: Shutting down Horizon Worlds in VR and separating Quest/Horizon platforms (deadline June 15) underscores a retreat from earlier metaverse ambitions and may signal write‑downs or strategic pivots. Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse
• Negative Sentiment: Delay to the Avocado AI rollout raises near‑term product and revenue tempo risk after earlier expectations for that model. Meta Platforms Just Delayed Its Avocado AI Rollout
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and safety issues: UK regulator found persistent failures to block illegal high‑risk financial ads, a reputational and compliance headwind that could bring fines or tighter oversight. Meta vowed to stop illegal financial ads in Britain. It failed 1,000 times in a week

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Roth Mkm lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $846.63.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.1%

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $651.86 and a 200 day moving average of $675.20. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors 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 yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $634.94, for a total transaction of $587,954.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,187 shares in the company, valued at $9,642,833.78. The trade was a 5.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 159,830 shares of company stock valued at $102,409,190 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Goldstone Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 44.4% in the 3rd quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,756,000 after buying an additional 1,153 shares during the period. CW Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 176,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $130,467,000 after buying an additional 38,432 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 34.2% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $38,373,000 after acquiring an additional 13,311 shares during the last quarter. Cherokee Insurance Co purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,321,000. Finally, Becker Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 5.0% in the third quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $25,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Company 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.