Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas Decreases Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas decreased its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 82.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 426 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,964 shares during the quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas’ holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after buying an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at about $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,489,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $10,694,644,000 after acquiring an additional 262,550 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $647.39 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $654.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $680.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $8.02 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bill Ackman / Pershing Square added a large position in META late in Q4 2025, signaling heavyweight institutional conviction and reinforcing the narrative that Meta is attractively valued. Bill Ackman’s Eyes Meta Platforms
• Positive Sentiment: AMD announced a multiyear mega-deal to supply large-scale AI compute to Meta and is expanding U.S. GPU manufacturing — a supply-side win that helps Meta scale AI infrastructure without being bottlenecked on chips. AMD AI Partnerships And Valuation Gap
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple bullish analyst/commentary pieces rank Meta as a top Magnificent 7 pick and argue its valuation and AI roadmap make it a long‑term winner, supporting continued investor interest. Meta Just Became the Best Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage noting that hedge funds and billionaires are building stakes in META reinforces momentum and a narrative of upside from both active managers and value-chasing investors. Billionaires Are Loading Up
• Neutral Sentiment: Increased retail/investor attention — Zacks notes META as a heavily searched stock — which can boost liquidity but is not by itself a directional catalyst. Investors Heavily Search META
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor letters and sector pieces (YCG, Motley Fool coverage) reiterate Meta’s AI ambition and strong fundamentals but mostly restate longer‑term theses rather than near‑term catalysts. YCG’s Updates on Meta Platforms
• Negative Sentiment: Macro risk: a 247WallStreet note flags that surging oil prices and broader market volatility could pressure high‑beta tech names including Meta, posing a near‑term downside risk despite company‑specific positives. Surging Oil Prices Threaten NVIDIA, Amazon, and Meta

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total transaction of $1,574,473.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 159,891 shares of company stock worth $102,464,356 over the last ninety days. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $850.00 target price (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Three 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

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.