Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Stock Holdings Raised by Vista Investment Partners LLC

Vista Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 162.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,923 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,808 shares during the period. Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. SWS Partners increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. SWS Partners now owns 4,568 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,015,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd now owns 2,360 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,558,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the period. Wall Street Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Wall Street Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,275 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,162,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Valicenti Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Valicenti Advisory Services Inc. now owns 710 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $469,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC now owns 12,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,841,000 after buying an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 160,931 shares of company stock valued at $102,997,526 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on META. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $935.00 to $945.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $843.57.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled Muse Spark, the first model from its Superintelligence Labs — positioned as a natively multimodal reasoning system with multi-agent orchestration and faster rollouts across Meta AI, apps, and upcoming devices; investors view this as a concrete step to close the gap with peers and boost AI-driven ad products. Meta unveils first AI model from superintelligence team (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Market-wide rally after a temporary Iran ceasefire lifted tech stocks broadly — as a Magnificent Seven heavyweight, META benefitted from sector flows and reduced macro risk premium. Tech stocks rally after Iran ceasefire (CNBC)
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s shutdown of Sora removes a direct short-form-video challenger, reinforcing the economics of Meta’s integrated Reels approach (AI+human content inside an existing ad engine) and lowering competitive risk to Reels monetization. OpenAI Shutters Sora: A Win for Meta Platforms (MarketBeat)
• Positive Sentiment: Reports of strong ad-revenue growth and partnerships (including a PayPal tie-up noted by some outlets) are renewing confidence that Meta’s core monetization can accelerate alongside AI product upgrades. Ad growth and PayPal partnership boost (247wallst)
• Neutral Sentiment: Early analyst/market positioning remains constructive: high hedge-fund ownership and bullish consensus price targets imply upside expectations, but these are already partly priced into the multiple. Hedge fund ownership and analyst optimism (InsiderMonkey)
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Muse Spark is mixed — outlets note meaningful improvements vs. Meta’s prior models but also weaknesses (e.g., coding performance still trails top rivals), so execution and benchmarks will matter for sustained upside. Muse Spark review and limitations (NYT)
• Negative Sentiment: An analyst downgrade to “Hold” and continuing investor concerns about heavy AI spending, layoff headlines, and legal exposures remain near-term risk factors that could cap gains if execution or margins disappoint. Analyst downgrades Meta to Hold (Yahoo Finance)

Meta Platforms Trading Up 6.5%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $612.42 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $632.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $655.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.31. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during 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%. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

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.