Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $660.30 and last traded at $654.07. Approximately 9,811,961 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 36% from the average daily volume of 15,271,764 shares. The stock had previously closed at $647.39.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta completed the acquisition of Moltbook, a viral social network built for AI agents, and is integrating the founders into its Superintelligence Labs — a move that boosts Meta’s AI talent, agent-network capabilities and product pipeline. Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook
• Positive Sentiment: Meta’s large-scale AI compute plans are supported by multiyear supplier deals (e.g., with AMD), easing a key execution risk for training and deploying next?gen models. Reliable compute supply underpins Meta’s AI roadmap and monetization potential. AMD AI Partnerships And Valuation Gap Put Growth Story In Focus
• Positive Sentiment: Growing investor endorsement (including attention from activist/large investors such as Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square) reinforces positive sentiment around Meta’s valuation and long?term AI growth thesis. Bill Ackman’s Eyes Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Amid Cheap Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta will add a 2%–5% location fee to advertisers to offset Europe’s digital service taxes — this protects reported margins but could shift costs to advertisers and create demand friction; the net revenue impact is uncertain. Meta to charge advertisers a fee to offset Europe’s digital taxes
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta publicly denied reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sidelined Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang after internal restructuring; management clarity reduces rumor-driven volatility but doesn’t change fundamentals. Meta Shuts Down Rumors Mark Zuckerberg Sidelined Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang
• Negative Sentiment: Former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun’s startup AMI raised $1.03B on a $3.5B pre?money valuation — a sign of deep competition for talent/ideas that could accelerate rival approaches and increase hiring costs. Ex?Meta AI chief Yann LeCun’s AMI raises $1.03 billion
• Negative Sentiment: A Dutch appeals court upheld a ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds in the Netherlands, increasing regulatory/operational constraints on personalization that could affect engagement and ad targeting. Dutch court upholds ruling forcing Meta to offer chronological feeds
• Negative Sentiment: Broader macro shocks (e.g., surging oil prices) are cited as risks to high?growth tech multiples and could pressure Meta along with other megacap names if inflation or growth fears re?emerge. Surging Oil Prices Threaten NVIDIA, Amazon, and Meta

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $800.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 target price (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 price target (up from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.0%

The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $654.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $680.04. The firm has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.30.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $59.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $637.21, for a total value of $590,056.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 16,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,267,364.73. The trade was a 5.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 159,891 shares of company stock valued at $102,464,356 over the last quarter. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in META. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $20,230,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the first quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $86,454,000 after purchasing an additional 112,000 shares in the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth about $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth approximately $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.