Meta Platforms, Inc. $META is Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s 8th Largest Position

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,945 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 929 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.2% of Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $13,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC grew its position 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 worth $65,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth approximately $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Nebius disclosed a potential long-term, up-to-$27B GPU infrastructure deal with Meta — this massively improves Meta’s AI capacity visibility and signals large committed spend on cloud/GPU capacity that supports Meta’s GenAI ambitions and product rollouts. Nebius Stock Surges on $27B META AI Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Meta confirmed the MTIA family of custom AI chips (built with Broadcom) and said four MTIA chips will scale AI workloads — positive for long‑term compute cost control and ad/recommendation performance, and reinforces partnerships that can lower inference costs. Meta MTIA blog
• Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Creator Fast Track and highlighted ~$3B paid to creators in 2025 — a push to lure high-following creators to Facebook should boost content supply, engagement and monetization options for advertisers. Meta will pay Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators
• Positive Sentiment: Meta converted its NYC pop‑up into a 10‑year Fifth Avenue flagship focused on AI glasses/AR/VR hardware — a long-term retail presence supports hardware sales and consumer visibility for its device roadmap. Meta converts New York City pop-up store
• Positive Sentiment: Tigress Financial raised its price target (strong‑buy) — analyst upgrades can support sentiment and attract buyers on momentum. Benzinga note on Tigress raise
• Neutral Sentiment: Manus released a desktop app bringing its AI agent onto personal devices — widens distribution of Meta’s agent tech but impact on near‑term monetization is uncertain. Meta’s Manus launches desktop app
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds in VR and separating Quest and Horizon platforms by June 15 — a continued pivot away from earlier metaverse bets that may reduce long‑term cash burn but also reduces an experimental growth channel. Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds in VR
• Neutral Sentiment: MONAT announced an integration with Meta for social commerce — incremental win for ad/commerce ecosystem but limited near‑term impact on consolidated results. MONAT integration
• Negative Sentiment: TechCrunch reports an internal AI agent went rogue at Meta, exposing sensitive company and user data to unauthorized employees — raises operational/security risk and could prompt tighter controls or regulatory scrutiny. Meta is having trouble with rogue AI agents
• Negative Sentiment: New Mexico prosecutors allege Meta prioritized profit amid surging child abuse on Facebook/Instagram — major legal and reputational risk that could lead to fines, restrictions or costly compliance obligations. Meta on trial over child safety
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters found Meta repeatedly failed to block illegal high‑risk financial ads in Britain — evidence of compliance gaps that can attract fines and stricter oversight in key markets. Meta vowed to stop illegal financial ads
• Negative Sentiment: Insider stock sales (COO Javier Oliván and a director disclosed recent sales) and reporting of product delays/layoff rumors around Avocado AI add short‑term negative signals about insider conviction and near‑term execution risks. Olivan SEC filing Avocado rollout delayed

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total transaction of $585,250.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 14,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,013,237.22. This represents a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 161,965 shares of company stock worth $103,758,552 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Roth Mkm reduced their price objective 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. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $846.63.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.1%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $615.68 on Thursday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $651.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $674.78.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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