Mcdonald Partners LLC Lowers Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Mcdonald Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 73.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,649 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,564 shares during the period. Mcdonald Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $1,213,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Griffith & Werner Inc. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at $7,532,000. Oakwell Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 169.2% during the third quarter. Oakwell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,076 shares during the last quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. now owns 30,509 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $22,405,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Fox Hill Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fox Hill Wealth Management now owns 8,315 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $6,106,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 14,495 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,645,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Roth Mkm decreased their target price on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $644.86 on Monday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $479.80 and a twelve month high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $654.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $680.69.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The firm’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.94%.

Insider Activity 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 stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 160,410 shares of company stock valued at $102,809,055. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.