Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Stock Price Up 1.4% – What’s Next?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price rose 1.4% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $678.50 and last traded at $671.58. Approximately 14,870,319 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 7% from the average daily volume of 15,987,323 shares. The stock had previously closed at $662.49.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded multi-year partnership with Broadcom commits capacity to Meta’s custom AI chips and networking for Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) rollout through 2029 — a major step toward in‑house AI compute and lower supplier risk. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley names META its top Big Tech pick into earnings with a Buy and elevated price target, adding leverage to near‑term investor demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary and earnings-history pieces highlight Meta’s strong beat record and setup to again top estimates, supporting expectations for continued upside into Q1 results. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is reorganizing Reality Labs hardware to “adapt and execute faster,” potentially accelerating XR/AR product timelines but also signaling internal change that may take time to show results. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta is building an internal AI replica of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with employees — a high-visibility internal AI project that showcases capability but has limited near-term revenue impact. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate governance update: announced board changes could affect investor perception but are routine ahead of strategic transitions. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators intend to order Meta to reinstate rival AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp after Meta imposed an access fee — an antitrust directive that could force reversals or limit Monetization strategy on WhatsApp in Europe. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal exposure: an Italian court allowed a class action over Facebook data scraping, renewing regulatory/legal risk that can pressure sentiment and add costs. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Some firms cut targets or issued cautious near‑term forecasts (e.g., price-target reductions, bearish notes), which could cap upside if broader market momentum cools. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on META. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 price target on Meta Platforms in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Pivotal Research dropped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Meta Platforms from $910.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $837.72.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.4%

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $626.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $651.90. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.31.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The company had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.Meta Platforms’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 8,089 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $631.24, for a total value of $5,106,100.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 2,841 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,352.84. The trade was a 74.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total transaction of $36,471,323.70. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 160,414 shares of company stock worth $102,659,925. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of META. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,537,000 after buying an additional 875 shares in the last quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 294.7% in the 1st quarter. Headwater Capital Co Ltd now owns 150,000 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $86,454,000 after buying an additional 112,000 shares during the last quarter. Dymon Asia Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Finally, Capital & Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $322,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.