Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Bought by US Bancorp DE

US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 952,522 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,912 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 0.8% of US Bancorp DE’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $699,515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors boosted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 3,506 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,587,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares during the period. Trust Co of the South raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 1,850 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,359,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 915 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $672,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% in the third quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 4,301 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,159,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: News Corp signed a multiyear paid content‑licensing deal with Meta that can supply training and retrieval content for Meta’s AI tools — a direct revenue/licensing relationship that improves AI data quality and reduces legal/content risk. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is forming a new applied AI engineering organization (flat structure, large IC:manager ratios) to accelerate model development in partnership with its Superintelligence Lab — signals sustained R&D investment and faster AI product iteration. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters/Bloomberg reports Meta is testing an AI‑powered shopping research tool for its chatbot, a potential new commerce revenue stream that could diversify monetization beyond ads. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional buyers continue to accumulate META even as executives sell, which investors interpret as conviction from long‑term funds — useful context but not an immediate fundamental change. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are re‑assessing Meta’s valuation after its multi‑year run; some view current multiples as reasonable given >20% revenue growth and strong margins — background for positioning rather than a catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market volatility from geopolitical tensions is dragging tech stocks broadly and could pressure META episodically; this is a macro headwind, not company‑specific. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Susan Li sold 56,571 shares (~$36.5M) in a disclosed SEC filing. Large insider sales can spur short‑term selling even if executed under prearranged plans. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced outages affecting thousands of U.S. users (Downdetector), a transient engagement/reputation hit that could briefly impact ad impressions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta scrapped its second‑generation Olympus AI accelerator highlight execution risks in custom silicon and likely increase reliance on external GPUs (Nvidia/AMD), with cost and supplier implications. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Bank of America upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $808.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total transaction of $604,381.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 17,039 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,121,014.52. The trade was a 5.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief technology officer owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,372 shares of company stock valued at $102,164,393. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $654.99 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $655.47 and a 200-day moving average of $682.76. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $479.80 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business 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 was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.02 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. 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.