Huntington National Bank Raises Stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 353,922 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,999 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.6% of Huntington National Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $259,913,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $44,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Evergreen Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a multiyear AI content‑licensing deal with News Corp that provides paid access to news content for training/retrieval — supports AI product quality and reduces legal/quality risk around training data. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Created a new applied AI engineering organization to speed model development and partner with its Superintelligence Lab — signals accelerated product rollout and continued R&D investment that can boost ad/product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group upgraded META from “hold” to “buy”, adding a positive analyst catalyst that can support demand in the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presentation at Morgan Stanley TMT conference provided additional management commentary and analyst color — useful for positioning but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Arete Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating, offering little directional pressure today.
• Negative Sentiment: Under EU antitrust pressure, Meta will allow rival AI chatbots onto WhatsApp in Europe (via its Business API) for a fee for the next 12 months — a concession that reduces immediate regulatory risk but highlights EU scrutiny and could erode WhatsApp exclusivity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed this week — CFO Susan Li sold ~56,571 shares (~$36.5M) and COO Javier Olivan also sold shares — which can create headline pressure and short‑term selling even if plan‑driven. Read More. • Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure from Indonesia, which issued a “stern warning” over disinformation and gambling content and pressed for greater algorithm transparency — potential compliance costs or restrictions in a large market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Operational risks surfaced: recent U.S. user outages (short‑term engagement/ad impression risk) and reports Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI chip effort — the latter could raise execution risk and greater reliance on external GPU suppliers. Read More. • Read More.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,746,335.16. This trade represents a 16.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 160,927 shares of company stock valued at $103,155,254 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on META shares. Evercore boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research lowered Meta Platforms from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Arete Research reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $660.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $655.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $682.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 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. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $8.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.94%.

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.