Wedmont Private Capital Reduces Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Wedmont Private Capital reduced its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor 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 portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $30,523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares in the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total value of $366,571.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,797,952.54. This trade represents a 11.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 160,929 shares of company stock worth $103,074,540. 13.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research reduced their target price on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $846.63.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $592.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $647.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $670.27. The company has a market capitalization of $1.50 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.23, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.30.

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 the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

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.