Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Acquired by Becker Capital Management Inc.

Becker Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares during the quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $25,741,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Lumbard & Kellner LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $344,000. Riverview Capital Advisers LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 59.9% during the third quarter. Riverview Capital Advisers LLC now owns 1,393 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,023,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 177.2% in the third quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 96,706 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $71,019,000 after purchasing an additional 61,819 shares during the period. Kelman Lazarov Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at $215,000. Finally, Astra Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Astra Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,094 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $803,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Closed multiyear AI/content and chip-supply deals that should improve model training quality and reduce sourcing risk — supports AI product road map and longer-term ad/engagement upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Signed paid content-licensing arrangements (reported coverage highlights a News Corp deal) and created a new applied-AI engineering organization to speed model development — both point to faster commercialization of AI features that can lift ad yields. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent investors and some brokers continue to list META as a buy or top idea (e.g., inclusion on Bill Ackman-related lists and select upgrades), supporting demand from long-term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presented at investor conferences and several sell‑side reports reiterated valuation/scale arguments — useful for analyst color but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street downgrades and cut price targets citing concerns that Meta is “lagging on AI” — raises short-term growth and competition worries and likely contributed to intraday selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed: CFO Susan Li sold roughly $36.5M and COO Javier Olivan also executed significant sales — while often planned (tax/vesting), these filers increase headline risk and can create short-term supply. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and competition pressure in Europe and Indonesia — Meta agreed to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Europe (for a fee) to head off EU action, and Indonesia issued warnings over disinformation and algorithm transparency, adding compliance and revenue uncertainty in key markets. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: 13F filings show several high‑profile managers trimmed or exited META in Q4 — signals profit‑taking and reduced conviction from some large investors. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Arete Research reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report 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 issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 160,927 shares of company stock worth $103,155,254 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $644.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $654.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $681.16.

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. The business 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.