Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Raises Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 60,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,223 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.4% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $44,138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of META. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 453,235 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $332,847,000 after acquiring an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 13,371 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $9,819,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 952,522 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $699,515,000 after purchasing an additional 25,912 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 2.5% during the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 9,769 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,174,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC now owns 6,242 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,584,000 after buying an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ META opened at $654.99 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $655.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $682.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25.

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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $8.02 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief technology officer directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total value of $370,724.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,200,374.26. This represents a 10.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 159,372 shares of company stock valued at $102,164,393 over the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Citizens Jmp reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 24th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $872.00 price objective (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Arete Research set a $718.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: News Corp signed a multiyear paid content‑licensing deal with Meta that can supply training and retrieval content for Meta’s AI tools — a direct revenue/licensing relationship that improves AI data quality and reduces legal/content risk. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is forming a new applied AI engineering organization (flat structure, large IC:manager ratios) to accelerate model development in partnership with its Superintelligence Lab — signals sustained R&D investment and faster AI product iteration. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters/Bloomberg reports Meta is testing an AI‑powered shopping research tool for its chatbot, a potential new commerce revenue stream that could diversify monetization beyond ads. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional buyers continue to accumulate META even as executives sell, which investors interpret as conviction from long‑term funds — useful context but not an immediate fundamental change. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are re‑assessing Meta’s valuation after its multi‑year run; some view current multiples as reasonable given >20% revenue growth and strong margins — background for positioning rather than a catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market volatility from geopolitical tensions is dragging tech stocks broadly and could pressure META episodically; this is a macro headwind, not company‑specific. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Susan Li sold 56,571 shares (~$36.5M) in a disclosed SEC filing. Large insider sales can spur short‑term selling even if executed under prearranged plans. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced outages affecting thousands of U.S. users (Downdetector), a transient engagement/reputation hit that could briefly impact ad impressions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI accelerator highlight execution risks in custom silicon and likely increase reliance on external GPUs (Nvidia/AMD), with cost and supplier implications. Read More.

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.