WT Asset Management Ltd Trims Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

WT Asset Management Ltd trimmed its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 59.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 65,887 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 94,913 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 2.2% of WT Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. WT Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $48,386,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,489,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,694,644,000 after acquiring an additional 262,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $872.00 price target (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 price objective (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Benchmark downgraded Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 103,837 shares of company stock worth $66,356,760. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Major AI infrastructure deals — Meta expanded its multi‑year AI hardware partnerships (AMD GPUs commitment and a reported multibillion‑dollar arrangement to rent Google TPUs) that accelerate model training scale and support ad/AI revenue growth expectations. Meta-AMD AI deal boosts scale Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Enforcement vs. ad scams — Meta filed lawsuits and took technical enforcement actions against advertisers accused of celebrity‑impersonation scams, a move aimed at protecting ad quality and user trust (positive for advertiser relationships and brand safety). Meta Platforms files lawsuits against scam advertisers
• Positive Sentiment: Short interest fell meaningfully in February, reducing near‑term bearish pressure and signaling less hedge‑fund pessimism about the shares.
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor access / visibility — CFO Susan Li will present at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference March 4, providing an opportunity for management to update on capex, AI cadence and monetization plans. Meta to Participate in the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent turnover — OpenAI hired a high‑profile Meta AI researcher; talent movement in the AI space is noteworthy but common, and Meta’s broad AI hiring and partnerships partly offset concerns. OpenAI hires Meta AI researcher
• Negative Sentiment: EU legal pressure — An adviser to Europe’s top court backed regulators in a dispute over Meta’s antitrust information requests, increasing regulatory risk and potential compliance costs in the region. EU court adviser rejects Meta’s fight
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing litigation and reputation risk — Testimony in a high‑profile California trial about social‑media harms and new Instagram parent‑alert policies keep regulatory/legal scrutiny and potential liabilities on investors’ radars. Woman suing Meta, YouTube expected to testify Instagram to alert parents of teen searches
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — Recent large share sales by senior executives (CFO and COO) may be read negatively by some investors even though insiders often sell for diversification or tax reasons. SEC filing: Susan J. Li sale

Meta Platforms Price Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $657.01 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.96, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $656.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $686.79.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $8.02 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Meta Platforms 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.