Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Wedmont Private Capital

Wedmont Private Capital lowered its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,054 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,947 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 1.1% of Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $30,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $44,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at $71,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is deepening its AI infrastructure and partnerships — Arm chose Meta as the launch customer for its first in‑house AGI CPU designed for data‑center AI workloads, signalling strong demand for Meta’s AI compute needs and potential optimization of its AI stack. Arm launches first own-brand chip with Meta as launch customer
• Positive Sentiment: Meta continues to bulk up AI talent and internal adoption: it recruited the Dreamer team to scale personalized AI agents and appointed CTO Andrew Bosworth to lead “AI for Work” initiatives, plus reports that a CEO “agent” is being tested — moves that should accelerate product development and productivity gains. Meta Recruits Dreamer Team to Scale Personalized AI Agents
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain constructive: Erste Group upgraded META to Buy, citing the company’s AI investments and pricing power — a signal that some institutional investors view Meta’s AI strategy as a durable earnings driver. Erste Group Upgrades Meta (META) to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is testing incentive programs to boost creator engagement (paying some influencers up to $3,000/month) — this could help engagement but is an incremental-cost experiment whose ROI is uncertain. Meta Will Pay Influencers Up to $3,000 Per Month
• Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech/A.I. is ongoing: EU antitrust chiefs have met with major AI players including Meta, which keeps regulatory risk on investors’ radars but doesn’t yet imply immediate penalties. EU antitrust chief meets Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon CEOs
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark New Mexico verdict: a jury ordered Meta to pay $375M after finding the company failed to protect children on its platforms — this is a material reputational and legal hit and raises the risk of further state suits and regulatory scrutiny. Meta Ordered to Pay $375 Million Over Child Safety Violations
• Negative Sentiment: Deal uncertainty in China: reports say regulators have barred Manus co‑founders from leaving while reviewing Meta’s ~$2B acquisition, creating execution risk and potential delays or blocking of the deal. China bars Manus co-founders from leaving country as it reviews sale to Meta
• Negative Sentiment: Executive pay and retention moves have drawn scrutiny: Meta granted RSUs and aggressive stock‑option packages tied to very high share‑price targets (reports say the plan targets a $9T valuation), which investors may view as dilutive or poorly timed despite management’s stated goal to retain AI talent. Meta Targets $9 Trillion Value With AI-Driven Exec Pay Plan
• Negative Sentiment: Operational and workforce noise: employees in some groups were told to work remotely amid looming layoffs and a discrimination lawsuit alleges age targeting in cuts — potential execution and morale headwinds. Some Meta employees were told to work remotely for the day as layoffs loom

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total transaction of $366,571.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,797,952.54. This trade represents a 11.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total value of $585,250.52. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 14,261 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,013,237.22. This represents a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,929 shares of company stock worth $103,074,540. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on META shares. 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 report on Thursday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $785.00 to $820.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $846.63.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META stock opened at $592.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $647.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $670.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $479.80 and a 52 week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $8.02 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. 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.