HighVista Strategies LLC Increases Stock Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

HighVista Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 45.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,500 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the quarter. HighVista Strategies LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $3,305,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $86,454,000 after acquiring an additional 112,000 shares in the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on META shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted 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. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Pivotal Research reduced their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note 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 issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 2.2%

META opened at $627.45 on Tuesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $652.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $676.01. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $8.02 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be given 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 yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Meta is preparing to cut roughly 20% of its workforce pushed expectations for multi‑billion dollar annual cost savings and sparked a rally as investors priced in faster path to profitability. Meta shares jump after Reuters report on plans for layoffs of 20% or more
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating and reiterated a high price target, providing institutional support for the stock amid the headlines. Analysts set Meta stock price target
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta signed a large multi‑year AI infrastructure agreement with Nebius (reported up to $27B) — it secures compute capacity critical for scaling AI but also confirms very large future spend commitments. Markets see this as strategic but capital‑intensive. Meta signs deal worth up to $27 billion with Nebius for AI infrastructure
• Neutral Sentiment: Several bullish analyst/strategy pieces argue the pullback is a buying opportunity given Meta’s scale, ad growth and AI monetization runway — providing counterweight to cost/CapEx concerns. Delays, Compute Deals, And Sky‑High CapEx: Why I’m Still Bullish On Meta
• Neutral Sentiment: Nebius and other cloud partners have seen strong share moves on the deal, highlighting that Meta’s AI commitments are reshaping the supplier landscape even if the direct near‑term benefit to Meta is mixed. Meta’s $27B AI Cloud Deal Sends Nebius Group Stock Soaring
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports flag surging AI spending, product delays (Avocado AI, smart glasses) and high CapEx plans — investors worry these investments could pressure margins and cash flow before monetization. Meta Reportedly Plans Job Cuts as AI Spending Surges
• Negative Sentiment: Advertiser pushback on a new Facebook/Instagram payment policy raises modest short‑term ad revenue execution risk if it leads to reduced spend from affected advertisers. Why some Facebook and Instagram advertisers are freaking out about a new payment policy
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/regulatory uncertainty — including EU debates over content‑detection rules — keeps policy risk on investors’ radars; outcomes could affect compliance costs and product implementations in Europe. EU fails to extend rules on child abuse content detection by online platforms

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,830 shares of company stock valued at $102,409,190. 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.