Marvin & Palmer Associates Inc. Makes New Investment in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Marvin & Palmer Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,938 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,892,000. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 2.5% of Marvin & Palmer Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,532,568 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 262,550 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on META. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price objective on Meta Platforms in a report on Monday, January 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Pivotal Research reduced their price objective 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. Wedbush boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Meta Platforms stock opened at $654.86 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $654.42 and a 200-day moving average of $679.16.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total transaction of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 161,446 shares of company stock valued at $103,451,688. 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: 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

About Meta Platforms

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.