HF Advisory Group LLC Acquires 233,197 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

HF Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4,008.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 239,015 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 233,197 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for about 6.0% of HF Advisory Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $157,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Goldstone Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 44.4% during the third quarter. Goldstone Financial Group LLC now owns 3,752 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $2,756,000 after purchasing an additional 1,153 shares during the period. CW Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 27.8% during the second quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 176,762 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $130,467,000 after purchasing an additional 38,432 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 34.2% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 52,252 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $38,373,000 after purchasing an additional 13,311 shares during the period. Becker Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 5.0% during the third quarter. Becker Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,052 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $25,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co. boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 84,059 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $55,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,336 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 6.5%

META stock opened at $612.42 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $632.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $655.87. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $796.25. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $8.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid 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 was Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on META shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $872.00 price objective (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Pivotal Research reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $1,117.00 to $1,144.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted 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. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $850.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $843.57.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total value of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 160,931 shares of company stock valued at $102,997,526 over the last quarter. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta unveiled Muse Spark, the first model from its Superintelligence Labs — positioned as a natively multimodal reasoning system with multi-agent orchestration and faster rollouts across Meta AI, apps, and upcoming devices; investors view this as a concrete step to close the gap with peers and boost AI-driven ad products. Meta unveils first AI model from superintelligence team (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Market-wide rally after a temporary Iran ceasefire lifted tech stocks broadly — as a Magnificent Seven heavyweight, META benefitted from sector flows and reduced macro risk premium. Tech stocks rally after Iran ceasefire (CNBC)
• Positive Sentiment: OpenAI’s shutdown of Sora removes a direct short-form-video challenger, reinforcing the economics of Meta’s integrated Reels approach (AI+human content inside an existing ad engine) and lowering competitive risk to Reels monetization. OpenAI Shutters Sora: A Win for Meta Platforms (MarketBeat)
• Positive Sentiment: Reports of strong ad-revenue growth and partnerships (including a PayPal tie-up noted by some outlets) are renewing confidence that Meta’s core monetization can accelerate alongside AI product upgrades. Ad growth and PayPal partnership boost (247wallst)
• Neutral Sentiment: Early analyst/market positioning remains constructive: high hedge-fund ownership and bullish consensus price targets imply upside expectations, but these are already partly priced into the multiple. Hedge fund ownership and analyst optimism (InsiderMonkey)
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of Muse Spark is mixed — outlets note meaningful improvements vs. Meta’s prior models but also weaknesses (e.g., coding performance still trails top rivals), so execution and benchmarks will matter for sustained upside. Muse Spark review and limitations (NYT)
• Negative Sentiment: An analyst downgrade to “Hold” and continuing investor concerns about heavy AI spending, layoff headlines, and legal exposures remain near-term risk factors that could cap gains if execution or margins disappoint. Analyst downgrades Meta to Hold (Yahoo Finance)

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.