Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Nicollet Investment Management Inc.

Nicollet Investment Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 3.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 22,728 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 832 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for 5.4% of Nicollet Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Nicollet Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $16,691,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at about $23,155,393,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 73,443.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,417,003 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $6,212,506,000 after purchasing an additional 8,405,558 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $64,158,971,000 after buying an additional 1,650,435 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after buying an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 103.5% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,998,624 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,475,166,000 after buying an additional 1,016,667 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $646.00, for a total transaction of $374,680.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,167 shares in the company, valued at $3,983,882. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,461 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Sunday, February 15th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,746,335.16. The trade was a 16.89% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760. 13.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Reported multiyear deal to rent Google’s TPU chips to accelerate model training — expands Meta’s compute capacity quickly without buying all hardware, supporting AI roadmap and ad/AI monetization prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Deal with AMD for GPUs and plans for very large 2026 capex (reported commitments and nuclear power pacts) strengthen Meta’s in?house training scale and long?term AI competitiveness, which investors view as revenue?accretive over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta is trialing stablecoin payments across Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, targeting faster payments and adoption in underbanked markets — a potential new revenue stream and higher engagement in emerging markets. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company sued advertisers over celebrity?impersonation scams and took technical enforcement actions — a move to shore up ad quality and preserve advertiser trust. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI hired a high?profile Meta AI researcher — talent movement highlights competition for AI engineers but is common across the sector and not unique to Meta. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/industry comparisons show Alphabet gaining share in AI?fuelled search and investing aggressively — useful context for competitive positioning but not an immediate earnings event. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: EU court adviser sided with regulators in a dispute over antitrust data requests — raises regulatory/compliance risk and potential costs in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: High?profile US trial testimony about social?media harms and new Instagram parent?alert policies keep litigation and reputational risk elevated, which can pressure sentiment and regulatory scrutiny. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales by CFO Susan Li (55,702 shares) and recent COO selling may be read negatively by some investors, adding near?term selling pressure despite common non?signal reasons for sales; SEC filing available. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $849.00 to $856.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of META opened at $648.18 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $655.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $685.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $59.89 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 EPS. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. 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 (DPR) is presently 8.94%.

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.