Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Sells 2,145 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 74,739 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 2,145 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 4.2% of Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $54,887,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. X Square Capital LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the third quarter. X Square Capital LLC now owns 10,558 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,754,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Avalon Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Avalon Trust Co now owns 504 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. ROI Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 27.3% during the 3rd quarter. ROI Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,297,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the third quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 44,502 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $32,681,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the period. Finally, Granite Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the third quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 30,894 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $22,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.3%

Meta Platforms stock opened at $648.18 on Friday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $479.80 and a 12-month high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The stock has a market capitalization 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. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $655.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $685.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on META shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Pivotal Research cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $872.00 price target (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total value of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. This represents a 16.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 55,702 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $633.61, for a total transaction of $35,293,344.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,186 shares in the company, valued at $8,354,781.46. This represents a 80.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.