Picton Mahoney Asset Management Sells 1,257 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Picton Mahoney Asset Management lessened its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 68,595 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,257 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $50,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $142,149,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth approximately $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,489,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,694,644,000 after purchasing an additional 262,550 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total value of $590,056.46. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 16,113 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,267,364.73. The trade was a 5.43% 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, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were 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 a total of 160,410 shares of company stock valued at $102,809,055 in the last quarter. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $644.86 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $654.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $680.69.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis 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 8.94%.

More Meta Platforms News

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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

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.