Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Bought by Argent Trust Co

Argent Trust Co raised its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 58,165 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 1.5% of Argent Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $42,715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth about $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a multiyear AI content‑licensing deal with News Corp that provides paid access to news content for training/retrieval — supports AI product quality and reduces legal/quality risk around training data. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Created a new applied AI engineering organization to speed model development and partner with its Superintelligence Lab — signals accelerated product rollout and continued R&D investment that can boost ad/product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group upgraded META from “hold” to “buy”, adding a positive analyst catalyst that can support demand in the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presentation at Morgan Stanley TMT conference provided additional management commentary and analyst color — useful for positioning but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating, offering little directional pressure today.
• Negative Sentiment: Under EU antitrust pressure, Meta will allow rival AI chatbots onto WhatsApp in Europe (via its Business API) for a fee for the next 12 months — a concession that reduces immediate regulatory risk but highlights EU scrutiny and could erode WhatsApp exclusivity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed this week — CFO Susan Li sold ~56,571 shares (~$36.5M) and COO Javier Olivan also sold shares — which can create headline pressure and short‑term selling even if plan‑driven. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure from Indonesia, which issued a “stern warning” over disinformation and gambling content and pressed for greater algorithm transparency — potential compliance costs or restrictions in a large market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Operational risks surfaced: recent U.S. user outages (short‑term engagement/ad impression risk) and reports Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI chip effort — the latter could raise execution risk and greater reliance on external GPU suppliers. Read More. • Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $872.00 price objective (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Roth Mkm lowered their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, 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 Meta Platforms 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 160,927 shares of company stock valued at $103,155,254 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.1%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $660.41 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $655.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $682.50. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 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 the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.