Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by NatWest Group plc

NatWest Group plc lowered its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 23.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,267 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 5,915 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms comprises about 3.5% of NatWest Group plc’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. NatWest Group plc’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $14,149,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in 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. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Meta Platforms by 608,429.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 59,775,823 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $44,119,937,000 after buying an additional 59,766,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after acquiring an additional 682,768 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter worth $23,155,393,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Meta Platforms news, CAO Aaron Anderson sold 726 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.60, for a total transaction of $429,501.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 6,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,570,306. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 6,875 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.46, for a total transaction of $4,190,037.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,370 shares in the company, valued at $53,857,980.20. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 42,074 shares of company stock worth $26,478,698 in the last three months. Company insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $800.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $750.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Wedbush dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $920.00 to $880.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,117.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Four 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $818.59.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Meta is reported to be developing new multimodal AI — an image/video model codenamed “Mango” and a text model called “Avocado” targeted for H1‑2026, which could accelerate product differentiation and ad/engagement upgrades. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: U.S. federal action on AI (an executive order to create a national AI framework) is being viewed as a net positive for Big Tech — it could reduce a patchwork of state rules and lower compliance complexity for large platforms like Meta. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wedbush trimmed its price target from $920 to $880 but kept an “outperform” rating — the cut tempers upside expectations but the firm still implies substantial upside vs. current levels. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Austrias Supreme Court ruled Meta’s personalized ad model unlawful and ordered sweeping user‑data access changes across the EU — this is a binding precedent that raises regulatory, compliance and revenue risk in Europe. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Several insiders (including General Counsel Jennifer Newstead and COO Javier Olivan) have sold blocks of shares in recent weeks — repeated insider sales can be perceived negatively by the market even if amounts are small relative to overall holdings. Read More. Read More.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

NASDAQ META opened at $658.77 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $659.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $707.30. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.28. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $479.80 and a 1-year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The social networking company reported $7.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.35% and a net margin of 30.89%.The company had revenue of $51.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $6.03 earnings per share. Meta Platforms’s quarterly revenue was up 26.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.28%.

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.