Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Cuts Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc lessened its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 24.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,556 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 5,348 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.1% of Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,159,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $648.18 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $655.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $685.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on META. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $872.00 price target (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $1,117.00 to $1,144.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total value of $370,724.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,200,374.26. The trade was a 10.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 103,837 shares of company stock worth $66,356,760 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reported multiyear deal to rent Google’s TPU chips to accelerate model training — expands Meta’s compute capacity quickly without buying all hardware, supporting AI roadmap and ad/AI monetization prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Deal with AMD for GPUs and plans for very large 2026 capex (reported commitments and nuclear power pacts) strengthen Meta’s in‑house training scale and long‑term AI competitiveness, which investors view as revenue‑accretive over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is trialing stablecoin payments across Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, targeting faster payments and adoption in underbanked markets — a potential new revenue stream and higher engagement in emerging markets. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company sued advertisers over celebrity‑impersonation scams and took technical enforcement actions — a move to shore up ad quality and preserve advertiser trust. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI hired a high‑profile Meta AI researcher — talent movement highlights competition for AI engineers but is common across the sector and not unique to Meta. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/industry comparisons show Alphabet gaining share in AI‑fuelled search and investing aggressively — useful context for competitive positioning but not an immediate earnings event. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: EU court adviser sided with regulators in a dispute over antitrust data requests — raises regulatory/compliance risk and potential costs in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High‑profile US trial testimony about social‑media harms and new Instagram parent‑alert policies keep litigation and reputational risk elevated, which can pressure sentiment and regulatory scrutiny. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales by CFO Susan Li (55,702 shares) and recent COO selling may be read negatively by some investors, adding near‑term selling pressure despite common non‑signal reasons for sales; SEC filing available. Read More.

Meta Platforms Company 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.