First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 43,308 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,133,432 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 43,308 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.2% of First Trust Advisors LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.08% of Meta Platforms worth $1,566,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Rolled out a roadmap of four new in‑house AI chips to expand data‑center capacity and cut dependence on third‑party hardware — a move that should lower long‑term costs and support Meta’s AI scale and margins. Meta unveils plans for batch of in-house AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Acquired Moltbook, a viral social network for AI agents, and brought its founders into Meta’s Superintelligence Labs — an inexpensive talent & capability win that reinforces Meta’s AI roadmap and content‑generation/testing capabilities. Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook
• Positive Sentiment: Launched AI‑powered anti‑scam tools across WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger — a user‑safety boost that can protect engagement and advertiser confidence on its platforms. Meta rolls out new scam detection tools to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger
• Neutral Sentiment: Street commentary (Evercore/Barron’s) suggests internet names including META may be oversold after AI worries and geopolitical risk — a catalyst that could attract value buyers but depends on macro sentiment. Amazon, Uber, and Other Internet Stocks Look Too Cheap After AI and Iran Worries
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Javier Olivan sold multiple blocks of shares (hundreds of shares reported), trimming his position — a near‑term negative signal that can weigh on sentiment even if routine. SEC filing: Javier Olivan sales
• Negative Sentiment: Announced a 2–5% “location fee” for advertisers to cover some European digital taxes — could pressure ad rates/advertiser spend in affected markets and be a small drag on revenue growth. Meta to charge advertisers a fee to offset Europe’s digital taxes
• Negative Sentiment: Dutch appeals court upheld a ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds in the Netherlands — a regulatory loss that could affect engagement/personalization and set precedents for further restrictions. Dutch court upholds ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $654.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year 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 firm’s 50-day moving average is $654.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $679.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a $0.525 dividend. 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 Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on META. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $800.00 target price (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $860.00 target price (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. This trade represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $639.77, for a total value of $1,574,473.97. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 161,446 shares of company stock worth $103,451,688 over the last 90 days. Corporate 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.