Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) CFO Susan Li sold 56,571 shares of the 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.
Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.2%
META stock opened at $654.99 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $655.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $682.76. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. The business's revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 (DPR) is currently 8.94%.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the second quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 3,506 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $2,587,000 after buying an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of the South increased its position in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the third quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 1,850 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,359,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 915 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $672,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 4,301 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $3,159,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered Meta Platforms from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Pivotal Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $844.44.
View Our Latest Stock Report on META
More Meta Platforms News
Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Multiyear content-licensing agreement with News Corp provides paid training data and retrieval content for Meta’s AI tools, likely supporting AI product quality and potential revenue/licensing synergies. News Corp licensing deal
- Positive Sentiment: Meta is testing an AI-powered shopping research tool for its chatbot — a direct product push into commerce via AI that could expand monetization channels beyond ads. AI shopping tool test
- Positive Sentiment: Company is creating a new applied AI engineering org (flat structure, high IC:manager ratios) to speed up its superintelligence / Reality Labs AI work — signals continued R&D investment that supports long-term AI roadmap. Applied AI org
- Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are reassessing Meta’s valuation after a strong multi‑year run; some analyses describe the stock as reasonably priced given scale and profit margins — useful context for investors but not an immediate catalyst. Valuation analysis
- Neutral Sentiment: Marketwide volatility (geopolitical tensions) is weighing on tech names broadly and could pressure META alongside peers; this is a macro headwind rather than company-specific news. Macro risk note
- Negative Sentiment: CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares (~$36.5M) under a disclosed SEC filing; large insider sales can cause short-term investor concern even if executed via pre-set plans. SEC filing - insider sale
- Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced outages for thousands of U.S. users (Downdetector reports), a short-term engagement/reputation hit that could transiently pressure ad impressions and sentiment. Outage report
- Negative Sentiment: Reports say Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI accelerator program, highlighting execution risks in custom silicon and likely increasing dependence on external GPU suppliers (Nvidia/AMD) — strategic cost/partner implications. Chip program pullback
About Meta Platforms
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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