Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases New Shares in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,120 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,557,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $44,000. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the second quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 67 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META stock opened at $649.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $658.31 and a 200-day moving average of $693.94. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $479.80 and a one year high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.28. 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 (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.16 by $0.72. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meta Platforms news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $618.28, for a total value of $358,602.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,587 shares in the company, valued at $3,454,330.36. This represents a 9.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $663.19, for a total value of $342,869.23. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,033,702.62. This represents a 5.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,078 shares of company stock valued at $24,016,453. 13.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square disclosed a roughly $2 billion stake (~10% of the fund), calling META undervalued and an AI beneficiary — a high?profile institutional endorsement that can attract other buyers and bolster the AI-growth narrative. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Meta announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.525 per share (payable March 26) — a formal return of capital that supports yield?seeking investors and signals board confidence in cash flow. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Hardware traction: EssilorLuxottica reported it more than tripled sales of Meta AI (Ray-Ban) glasses in 2025 — evidence Reality Labs products can scale and begin to diversify revenue beyond advertising. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Data center expansion: Meta broke ground on a $10B Indiana data?center (and another large campus reported elsewhere), strengthening long?term AI compute capacity that underpins ad/AI initiatives. These are long?horizon positives but raise near?term capex. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares (~$343k) in a routine filing; the sale is small relative to total insider holdings and follows a pattern of periodic sales. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Russia block: Russian authorities removed WhatsApp from an official directory and effectively blocked access for ~100M users — a material engagement loss in that market and a nearer?term revenue/MAU headwind. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and reputational risk: Ongoing trials and testimony (including accusations that products enabled harm) increase litigation exposure and political/regulatory scrutiny that could lead to fines, restrictions or product changes. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Capex/FCF pressure: Coverage of the “Mag?7” AI arms race highlights heavy industry capex and potential free?cash?flow strain — Meta’s big data?center builds support growth but keep near?term spending elevated. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Roth Mkm decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, 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 research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.50.

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.