Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Buys 2,372 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 61,949 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,372 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for about 0.6% of Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $45,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 64.8% in the third quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

META has been the topic of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm dropped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $872.00 price objective (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $644.86 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $654.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $681.16. 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 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.63 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30.

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

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Meta Platforms News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Closed multiyear AI/content and chip-supply deals that should improve model training quality and reduce sourcing risk — supports AI product road map and longer-term ad/engagement upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Signed paid content-licensing arrangements (reported coverage highlights a News Corp deal) and created a new applied-AI engineering organization to speed model development — both point to faster commercialization of AI features that can lift ad yields. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent investors and some brokers continue to list META as a buy or top idea (e.g., inclusion on Bill Ackman-related lists and select upgrades), supporting demand from long-term investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presented at investor conferences and several sell‑side reports reiterated valuation/scale arguments — useful for analyst color but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street downgrades and cut price targets citing concerns that Meta is “lagging on AI” — raises short-term growth and competition worries and likely contributed to intraday selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed: CFO Susan Li sold roughly $36.5M and COO Javier Olivan also executed significant sales — while often planned (tax/vesting), these filers increase headline risk and can create short-term supply. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and competition pressure in Europe and Indonesia — Meta agreed to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Europe (for a fee) to head off EU action, and Indonesia issued warnings over disinformation and algorithm transparency, adding compliance and revenue uncertainty in key markets. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: 13F filings show several high‑profile managers trimmed or exited META in Q4 — signals profit‑taking and reduced conviction from some large investors. Read More.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total value of $590,056.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 16,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,267,364.73. This trade represents a 5.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief technology officer 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 160,927 shares of company stock worth $103,155,254. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

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.