Granite Investment Partners LLC Buys 1,329 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Granite Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 30,894 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,329 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.3% of Granite Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Granite Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $22,688,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of META. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 42.6% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on META shares. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $810.00 to $885.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Pivotal Research lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $648.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50-day moving average is $655.83 and its 200 day moving average is $685.25. 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 fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 30.08% and a return on equity of 38.61%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 8.94%.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 629 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $652.68, for a total value of $410,535.72. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 2,885 shares in the company, valued at $1,882,981.80. The trade was a 17.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. This represents a 74.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 103,837 shares of company stock valued at $66,356,760. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company 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.