Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 1% Higher – Should You Buy?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares shot up 1% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $660.30 and last traded at $654.07. 9,811,961 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 36% from the average session volume of 15,271,764 shares. The stock had previously closed at $647.39.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta completed the acquisition of Moltbook, a viral social network built for AI agents, and is integrating the founders into its Superintelligence Labs — a move that boosts Meta’s AI talent, agent-network capabilities and product pipeline. Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s large-scale AI compute plans are supported by multiyear supplier deals (e.g., with AMD), easing a key execution risk for training and deploying next‑gen models. Reliable compute supply underpins Meta’s AI roadmap and monetization potential. AMD AI Partnerships And Valuation Gap Put Growth Story In Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Growing investor endorsement (including attention from activist/large investors such as Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square) reinforces positive sentiment around Meta’s valuation and long‑term AI growth thesis. Bill Ackman’s Eyes Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Amid Cheap Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta will add a 2%–5% location fee to advertisers to offset Europe’s digital service taxes — this protects reported margins but could shift costs to advertisers and create demand friction; the net revenue impact is uncertain. Meta to charge advertisers a fee to offset Europe’s digital taxes
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta publicly denied reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sidelined Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang after internal restructuring; management clarity reduces rumor-driven volatility but doesn’t change fundamentals. Meta Shuts Down Rumors Mark Zuckerberg Sidelined Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang
• Negative Sentiment: Former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun’s startup AMI raised $1.03B on a $3.5B pre‑money valuation — a sign of deep competition for talent/ideas that could accelerate rival approaches and increase hiring costs. Ex‑Meta AI chief Yann LeCun’s AMI raises $1.03 billion
• Negative Sentiment: A Dutch appeals court upheld a ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds in the Netherlands, increasing regulatory/operational constraints on personalization that could affect engagement and ad targeting. Dutch court upholds ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds
• Negative Sentiment: Broader macro shocks (e.g., surging oil prices) are cited as risks to high‑growth tech multiples and could pressure Meta along with other megacap names if inflation or growth fears re‑emerge. Surging Oil Prices Threaten NVIDIA, Amazon, and Meta

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $800.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $785.00 to $820.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $850.00 price target (up from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $654.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $680.04. The stock has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30.

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 the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $8.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 159,891 shares of company stock valued at $102,464,356. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. RHL Group LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% 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.