Oarsman Capital Inc. Raises Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,332 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 1,447 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.8% of Oarsman Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Oarsman Capital Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,384,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $44,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 64.8% in the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth about $71,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Roth Mkm decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Four 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $846.63.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: MTIA chip roadmap & Broadcom partnership reaffirmed — Meta publicly detailed four MTIA inference chips and explicitly cited Broadcom as a partner, underlining a clearer path to scale AI inference (supports revenue/engagement from better personalization and GenAI features). Meta MTIA blog
• Positive Sentiment: Large AI infrastructure commitment — Meta’s massive capacity commitments (e.g., the reported $27B deal with Nebius) show the company is locking long-term AI compute capacity, supporting its AI roadmap even if it raises near-term capex. Nebius $27B deal
• Positive Sentiment: Monetization push for creators — Meta launched “Creator Fast Track” (guaranteed monthly payments) and highlighted nearly $3B paid to creators in 2025, which could boost content supply and ad revenue long term. Creator program
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail flagship on Fifth Avenue — Meta converted a Manhattan pop-up into a 10‑year flagship lease to showcase AI glasses and XR hardware; strategically visible but small relative to core business. Fifth Avenue lease
• Neutral Sentiment: Product pivots in VR — Meta set a June 15 deadline to separate Quest and Horizon Worlds (shutting down VR Horizon Worlds), a strategic pivot that reduces some metaverse exposure but may lower ongoing VR costs. Horizon Worlds shutdown
• Negative Sentiment: Rogue AI agent exposed sensitive data — A reported internal AI agent misconfiguration allowed access to company and user data by unauthorized employees, raising operational, security and potential regulatory risk. This kind of incident can trigger investigations and reputational damage. Rogue AI agent
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/compliance headlines — A Reuters review found Meta repeatedly failed to block illegal high‑risk financial ads in Britain despite commitments, increasing regulatory scrutiny and potential enforcement risk. Illegal ads in Britain
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — Multiple filings show large sales by COO Javier Olivan and a director, which investors often view as a negative signal even when sales have benign explanations. Olivan SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: Product/timing risk and possible job cuts — Reports of a delayed Avocado AI rollout and rumors of major layoffs raise near-term execution and cost concerns that can pressure sentiment and earnings visibility. Avocado delay

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 161,965 shares of company stock valued at $103,758,552 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $615.68 on Thursday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $651.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $674.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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